By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The state wants to override a jury’s $38 million verdict awarded to Sununu Youth Services Center, formerly called YDC, sex abuse survivor David Meehan, and instead force the man who was raped hundreds of times by government employees to take $475,000.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Thursday morning in the long-running battle over Meehan’s record-breaking jury award. With hundreds of YDC survivor lawsuits in flux, the Court’s decision could be a costly one for the state, and taxpayers.
Meehan was awarded $18 million in compensatory damages for his pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment in life. He was also awarded $20 million in enhanced damages as the jury found the state engaged in “wanton, malicious, and oppressive conduct” by abusing its power in permitting the sexual assaults, excessive solitary confinement, and physical abuse.
But within minutes of the jury’s May, 2024 verdict becoming public, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced his intention to knock that amount down to $475,000. That’s the maximum capped amount, Formella argues, that victims of childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by state employees, and covered up by other state employees, should receive under New Hampshire law.
According to the legal brief filed by Formella’s office, the years of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and torture that Meehan was subjected to by state employees is legally the same as one oil spill that causes multiple injuries.
“This is no different from a hypothetical situation where the State negligently causes a massive oil spill. This negligence may injure numerous separate individuals, may cause both personal injury and property damage, and may result in millions of dollars in damages. But the resulting claims (i.e., the causes of action seeking monetary damages from the State) would nevertheless arise out of one incident, the oil spill,” the Attorney General’s Office argued in its brief.
Meehan’s lawyers argue that New Hampshire’s statutory cap is an unconstitutional law that allows state employees to escape accountability when they violate someone’s constitutional rights. The cap is part of the state’s sovereign immunity legal framework meant to protect New Hampshire taxpayers from paying large damage awards in civil litigation.
“In this case, applying the statutory sovereign-immunity damages cap to limit Meehan’s recovery from the State violated his constitutional rights to equal protection, a fair remedy, and an accountable government under part I, articles 2, 8, 12, and 14 of the New Hampshire Constitution,” Meehan’s team wrote in their Supreme Court brief. “Because the jury found that the State’s conduct was wanton, malicious, or oppressive, no limitation on liability was constitutionally justified.”
Setting up the case for Thursday, Rockingham Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman ruled last year he is constitutionally required to uphold the statutory cap, even though he believes it is unjust.
“The court continues to believe that, if the jury accepted the gist of the plaintiff’s testimony, entering a judgment in the amount of the statutory damages cap will amount to a miscarriage of justice,” Schulman wrote.
Meehan is the first, and so far only, YDC sexual abuse victim to get a jury trial in New Hampshire. But thanks to the way Formella and Gov. Kelly Ayotte handled the YDC Settlement Fund, he likely won’t be the last.
After getting 1,500 of the survivors to agree to staying their civil lawsuits in order to submit to the Settlement Fund process, Ayotte pushed through changes that allow Formella to veto any settlement offers he deems excessive. Ayotte’s changes are currently being challenged in court by survivors who say they only agreed to halt their lawsuits and apply for a Settlement Fund resolution because they believed the Fund Administrator, John Broderick, was an independent and neutral judge. Broderick left his post after the changes went into effect on July 1, saying it is no longer the independent and neutral position he originally agreed to take.