VAN NUYS (CNS) – Jury deliberations are scheduled to continue Wednesday in the punitive phase of trial of a lawsuit filed against socialite Rebecca Grossman and former Dodger pitcher Scott Erickson over the deaths of two boys who were fatally struck by Grossman’s car on a Westlake Village street, allegedly while the couple was racing.
Last week, the Van Nuys Superior Court jury awarded the boys’ family $176 million in compensatory damages. The panel also found that Grossman and Erickson acted with malice, leading to a punitive damages phase of trial.
During closing arguments of the punitive phase Tuesday, an attorney for the Iskander family urged jurors to assess $20 million in punitive damages against Grossman, and $1 million against Erickson.
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday, and are scheduled to reconvene Wednesday morning.
The plaintiffs in the civil suit are Nancy Iskander and her husband Karim as well as son Zachary. The lawsuit filed in January 2021 contends that Grossman and Erickson had cocktails on Sept. 29, 2020, and the two later engaged in a speed contest along Triunfo Canyon Road until they reached the crosswalk and the children — Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8 — were struck at about 80 mph in a 45 mph zone by Grossman.
“Their lives will never be the same,” Iskander attorney Brian Panish said in his closing argument. “He (Erickson) and Rebecca Grossman deserve each other because they’re both the same kind of person.”
Attorneys for Grossman and Erickson, however, argued that their clients were not impaired and were not racing at the time of the accident.
Grossman attorney Esther Holm told jurors that a “message has been sent” already to Grossman, with last week’s $176 million compensatory damages verdict.
“You don’t have to award punitive damages,” she said, adding that the boys’ deaths were the result of “an unintended accident.”
In their court papers, the Iskander attorneys contend that the 62-year- old Grossman tried to flee the scene and likely would have succeeded had her vehicle not automatically shut down due to it sensing the massive impact that had just occurred.
The Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder then lied to law enforcement about her speed and how much she had to drink, and contended she did not know why her airbag suddenly deployed despite her vehicle sustaining massive front- end damage, the Iskander attorneys further state. Grossman and Erickson have blamed each other for hitting the boys.
Grossman is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. In March, a panel of the Second District Court of Appeal upheld the criminal case conviction. Grossman was found guilty Feb. 23, 2024, of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving.
Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, is a renowned plastic surgeon whose father, Dr. Richard Grossman, founded the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills. Peter Grossman is a defendant in the case because he owned the car his wife was driving.
Recent Comments