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Crime

Charter Must Pay $1.1 Billion After Cable Technician Murdered Customer (arstechnica.com) 121

Posted by BeauHD from the Jason-the-cable-guy dept.
Charter Communications must pay over $1.1 billion to the estate and family of an 83-year-old woman murdered in her home by a Spectrum cable technician, a Dallas County Court judge ruled yesterday. Ars Technica reports: A jury in the same court previously ordered Charter to pay $7 billion in punitive damages and $337.5 million in compensatory damages. Judge Juan Renteria lowered the award in a ruling issued yesterday. The damages are split among the estate and four adult children of murder victim Betty Thomas. Renteria did not change the compensatory damages but lowered the punitive damages awarded to the family to $750 million. Pre-judgment interest on the damages pushes Charter's total liability to over $1.1 billion.

It isn't surprising that the judge lowered the payout, in which the jury decided punitive damages should be over 20 times higher than what Charter is liable for in compensatory damages. A nine-to-one ratio is often used as a maximum because of a 2003 US Supreme Court ruling that said: "In practice, few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process." Former Spectrum technician Roy Holden pleaded guilty to the 2019 murder of customer Betty Thomas and was sentenced to life in prison in April 2021. Charter was accused of hiring Holden without verifying his employment history and ignoring a series of red flags about his behavior, which included stealing credit cards and checks from elderly female customers.
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Charter Must Pay $1.1 Billion After Cable Technician Murdered Customer More

Charter Must Pay $1.1 Billion After Cable Technician Murdered Customer

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  • New standard employment screening question (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do you now or in the future plan or have any intent to commit a murder?

  • The real reason for the financial smackdown (Score:5, Informative)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @09:04PM (#62899867)

    The jury also found that "Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."

    Plus they knew the guy was stealing from elderly customers previously.

    • Re:The real reason for the financial smackdown (Score:5, Interesting)

      by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @09:50PM (#62899961)

      From another story I found this bit interesting:
      Chris Hamilton, a Hamilton Wingo LLP lawyer representing the family of Mrs. Thomas, said the findings that Charter committed forgery eliminated the cap on punitive damages under Texas law. The victim’s family sought to have the punitive damages reduced and the lowered amount is unlikely to be overturned given the jury’s findings and Supreme Court precedent, he said.

    • Re:The real reason for the financial smackdown (Score:4, Interesting)

      by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @09:59PM (#62899983) Journal

      Did Charter's lawyers know about the forgery? If so, there should be serious sanctions against them. This won't happen, because wealthy lawyers almost always skate on this type of misbehavior.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Clearly someone knew and whoever it was should be in jail for fraud.

        Also how is a contract like this legal? In Europe the principal is generally that unfair contract terms are unenforceable, e.g. if they try to remove your right to use the legal system for redress.

        • In the US, contract terms need to be both procedurally (i.e. you can't negotiate) and substantively (i.e. nobody would really freely agree) unconscionable in order to be considered unfair and unenforceable. There are 50 US states and those thresholds vary. I am not a lawyer. All service contracts are procedurally unconscionable but many are not considered to be substantively so even if they include forced arbitration as, in theory, arbitration is good for both parties as it is cheaper and resolves most i

    • The jury also found that "Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."

      Plus they knew the guy was stealing from elderly customers previously.

      For me the big question is how high up the chain this decision making went.

      The enabling of an active criminal to go around visiting clients is abhorrent, but it was probably the decision of his immediate manager or middle-management 1-2 levels above him.

      The forged docs are a lot worse in the sense those decisions would have been made much higher up the food chain.

      For 1.1 billion I expect that C-level executives were either directly calling the shots, or had delegated tasks to people who acted as unethically

  • I guess this is one reason why the US is the only country I know of to use juries for civil cases.
    Juries are bad enough for criminal trials. You'd think if they were at least consistent, an experienced lawyer having observed a trial and all evidence would be able to able to make a good prediction of the result, but often they have no idea. Verdicts are highly unpredictable, more often than you'd think. In this US, this wild unpredictability contributes to a plea-bargain culture, where police will bring char

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      how is this relevant to this case? there is clear evidence that the company did wrong, first being grossly negligent, then trying to bully the defendants. so the jury did pretty well here.

      yes, the compensation is out of proportion. are you suggesting the amount was set by the jury? honestly asking, i don't know. maybe they simply granted the plaintiffs request, but anyway a judge adjusted it. what exactly is wrong here in your opinion?

      btw, i do think some exemplary action was in order here. you can's simply

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        I would say the award in this case is a sort of safety release valve for a broken system where incorporation is somehow protection for criminal behavior. Because they are very obviously guilty of serious crimes that should get multiple people thrown in prison, but "piercing the corporate veil" even in criminal matters, let alone civil is nigh impossible. That's insanely broken. So, instead, an enormous award in civil court because they should not be able to just get away with this stuff. It's very imperfect

  • People love it when these kinds of lawsuits punish big companies, but where do you think that money is going to come from? It's going to come from the subscribers, who did nothing wrong, and shouldn't have to pay more for their internet because of this.

    • Someone's grandmother was murdered and your take away is, "cable bills are going up!"

      Wow... on the spectrum much?

      • Someone's grandmother was murdered and your take away is, "cable bills are going up!"

        Two people die every second.

        Many of them were grandmothers.

        Should we give a billion dollars to each of them?

        • Two people die every second.

          Many of them were grandmothers.

          Should we give a billion dollars to each of them?

          If they are all murdered by cable installers, we should stop having cable service.

    • No it does not. You are assuming price elasticity allows the company to raise prices, which implies the company is rather stupid for not raising prices before the incident.

      Aside from heavily regulated industries, this is not true.

      A competent company already charges the most it can without negatively impacting profits. Which means either 1) they keep prices low and eat the cost themselves / pay higher insurance rates, or 2) they raise prices and lose customers, so their profits go down. In case 2, some p

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ichijo ( 607641 )

        +1

        So the money will come from people who own shares of CHTR.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

        > 2) they raise prices and lose customers, so their profits go down.

        Roh roh. Someone never learned the difference between elastic and in-elastic goods and services.

        With work from home, school from home, banking online... guess whether internet is a luxury or a requirement to function in modern society.

    • So in other words companies should have zero liability because it might make them raise prices? How about they open up their coffers or sell of some stocks instead? Won't someone think of the poor CEO who won't get an 8 digit bonus this year?

      • So in other words companies should have zero liability

        There is a big difference between zero and a billion.

        Charter bore some responsibility. But catapulting one random family into the 0.0001% isn't exactly "sticking it to the man."

        • The reason for such a large reward is *punitive* in order to discourage others from engaging in such behaviors in the future.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • If the cable company could charge you more and get away with it, why wouldn't they be doing that already? You really think the marketing campaign "we got fined a billion dollars for fraud and murder so we're raising prices" is going to move the demand curve? If cable companies added X% profit to their costs and charged that then cable internet would be about 80% cheaper. Instead, like any sane capitalist, cable companies charge as much as they think they can, even creating custom pricing models to try to ex

  • IANAL so others here may know more, but didn't TX have a limit on punitive damage? Something like 2x compensatory damages? That's in line with what the judge did, dropping the punitive damages to precisely 2x of compensatory.

    https://www.mcminnlaw.com/dama... [mcminnlaw.com]

    That's a hell of a payout. I have to wonder if the jury would have requested $7 billion if the business wasn't Charter, but a small mom & pop outfit. Should the damages scale with what a business (or person, if a person is the plaintiff) can afford

    • Re:Punitive damage limits (Score:5, Informative)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @10:20PM (#62900023)

      Looks like Charter is worth $66 billion. Somehow I think they'll survive. Read the article about how Charter tried to forge documents. Under Texas law the cap is removed when someone is caught forging. Like the saying goes they fucked around and found out.

      • Oh agreed, no doubt at all that Charter screwed up, and did so maliciously. They should be punished for this. I'm just trying to square up that the same behavior could have occurred at a company with much less resources. Would the jury still have asked for $7 billion?

      • Uh, you're going to have to connect the dots there. According to their 2021 financials, they have less than a billion US Dollars in money on hand.

        $66B is their market cap, and that number has actually fallen to $57B. That's from shares of stock that other people own: they can't actually convert that to money. The owners of those shares would receive the money from selling it, not the company.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It's a hell of a payout if you look at is as a payout. As a fine it seems stiff but not excessive. That's why most countries treat this as a fine: actual damages (including those for mental anguish and such) are paid out to the victims, but the fine (which might be proportional to the company's revenues) is paid to the state. And I fully agree with that. The court system should not be a lottery where a mishap might net a "lucky" winner, as you stated, a fortune that can make them and their descendants f

  • Overturned on appeal. Maybe a few mil with a secret settlement..

  • When a judge lowers an award amount against a corporation, they should have to explain openly to victim's families, "Look, I sympathize, but your dead family member just isn't worth this much money. I have calculated their value as a human being, and it is actually (insert much lower figure). Taking any more from the corporation would unfairly affect shareholders, who might have to postpone their vacations to Fiji or Switzerland. You, who have suffered greatly, can sympathize with that, amirite?"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      I have calculated their value as a human being, and it is actually (insert much lower figure).

      If the authorities admitted human life had a value, they might have to fund healthcare and regulate firearms.

      • And even if they wouldn't, courts could impose it by default by awarding such staggering figures that insurance companies would force a similar result anyway.

    • unfairly affect shareholders, who might have to postpone their vacations to Fiji or Switzerland.

      Most shares are owned by middle-class pension funds.

    • I guess they could also explain this is a country ruled by laws, and we can't ignore them just because we're mad, because that's what makes them 'laws'.
      • Umm...the laws that the convicted corporations violated with impunity, and will violate again with impunity because of the reduced indemnity?

        Invest more thought into your positions.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        FWIW, the reduced find *is* in line, not only with the laws, but with a prior Supreme Court decision. The higher fine would be in line with the laws, due to the forgery by Charter, but the prior Supreme Court decision indicates it might fail on appeal. The reduced fine doesn't have hat indication.

        • That's certainly a curious analysis. The Due Process clause *is* part of "the laws", and while the Court's single-digit limitation is not a bright-line rule, it is a very strong suggestion the judge is rightfully following here. Since the ruling would have to rely on the forgery issue to justify exceeding double damages under Texas law, the original award would definitely run headlong into that referenced Supreme Court decision. [reuters.com] Large-multiplier punitive damages based on conduct that does not involve physic
    • Change punitive damages to a fine payable to the state, and you avoid this silliness.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Yes, it would avoid THIS kind of silliness, but it would also create a perverse incentive for the state to impose higher penalties.

        Perhaps it would be only fair to have some perverse incentives that penalize corporations rather then individuals, but I think it would be better to avoid them as much as possible.

      • The state already gets a share as a tax on the payment. Problem is, they get way more, and way more reliably, via campaign contributions. Which would still be a problem even if 100% of awards were to them.

  • In future Comcast customer billing news ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2022 @11:03PM (#62900107)

    Wonder what the line-item wording and fee will be on the Comcast customer bills to recoup this? Let's see... They'll want to recoup this fairly quickly before shareholders revolt, say a year... According to Google, Comcast has about 29.6M customers... which comes out to about $37.50/customer. Spread out over 12 months:

    Homicide judgement recovery fee: $3.12 (8)

    (*) Customers willing to risk being murdered by our technicians may opt-out of this fee by calling Comcast customer support, which has it's own risk/reward calculations. For those still alive, your satisfaction is very important to us. The current wait time is 26h.

  • Charter will soon reclassify all technicians as independent contractors, so that when the technician murders a customer Charter will not be held financially responsible.
  • Godamn that's a lot of money. Sign me up for all the TV shows, box office hits, premium sports, and a dead grandma!! She was gonna die soon anyways, and now I don't have to sit through reruns of Matlock. (drop "vintage TV shows" from the package please).

  • Shit gold (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @02:42AM (#62900385)
    Unless this 83 year old woman used to shit gold, how is her life worth 300 million? At most she had 10-15 more years of life left most of it low quality spent in and out of hospitals with zero earning potential. This award is ridiculous.
  • Charter was not at fault just because they hired a criminal. They were at fault because they saw that this guy was behaving in an extremely abnormal way, sufficiently so that they stopped sending him on calls, but apparently didn't feel the need to do anything about his access to a company van and equipment in which to drive around terrorizing the neighborhood. There's not even a question of whether they should have known there was a problem, they demonstrated that they actually knew and did nothing about

  • Why is it that a company is responsible for such damages, but then the government is not liable when it releases criminals in catch-and-release states?

    • In the US, one is criminally innocent until proven guilty. The US does not release criminals proven guilty except under specific circumstances i.e. the sentence has been fully served or the criminal is eligible for parole. Your comment has no context and includes assumptions that are only known to you. I presume you mean asylum-seekers who haven't actually been found guilty of a crime. Well, because that's how it works.

  • I'm in Canada, and I keep getting invoices and appointment confirmations and other personal info for a Charter Spectrum customer in Florida sent to me via e-mail. I called their customer service twice about this (and waiting on hold to talk to the customer service of an ISP in a different country is just a joy, let me tell you), and each time they removed my e-mail address from the customer's account... briefly, because before too long I started getting the e-mails again. I stopped bothering after the secon

  • This will be a big blow to their diversity, inclusion, equity goals.

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