This post is by way of a concluding episode to the long running story: the unintended overdose death of Tyler Skaggs, pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team. Our previous updates can be found here.
At last look, we wondered why there hadn’t already been a settlement, that being a common outcome. Expert commentators had observed that given the circumstances, it would be difficult for the Court to determine a clear winner,and a settlement could save both sides unwanted embarrassment.
Nonetheless, they decided to battle it out in a courtroom. Translation: On some level, both parties must have felt they could win.
Well, they didn’t. Instead “…jurors, deliberating for more than two days, sent queries that suggested the verdict might go in the family’s favor.” That was all it took — the team quickly reversed field and made an offer that was accepted with equal speed by the plaintiffs.
How much money was involved? That hasn’t been revealed. The family had reportedly been seeking $118 million for potential loss of earnings, plus unspecified damages. I imagine anything short of that amount would’ve appealed to the defense.
We’re told that the judge’s instructions to the jury included this admonition: “If Kay (the Angels’ employee now serving a 22-year federal prison sentence) hadn’t provided that pill, Skaggs would not have died that night.”
That sounds questionable to me, because it’s conceivable the player could have obtained the drugs from a different source– a friendly doctor, such as in the Matthew Perry case, or another of many sources available to people in LA who have plenty of money.
The jury, however, was apparently persuaded that the victim wouldn’t have had access to those sources. They did acknowledge that “…Skaggs himself bore some responsibility for his own death.” Well, of course he does — he’s the one who ingested illegal opioids. He simply didn’t realize they contained fentanyl, and that error cost him his life.
Also from the article: “Skaggs’ mother…told jurors she did not make anyone at the Angels aware of her son’s Percocet addiction in 2013. She did say she would have told the Angels had they asked her about it.” But they never did, she claims.
They didn’t ask, and she didn’t tell. Your classic conspiracy of silence.
Anyway, it’s over. No precedent was set for future cases, however, because in the end, no decision was rendered by the Court.
