A Long Beach jury has found a Los Angeles County real estate investor liable for $3 million in punitive damages in an elder abuse case involving an 80-year-old woman. This decision follows the September 1 verdict against defendant Ken Allen Lamphear for elder abuse, fraud, and fraud in the inducement in which the jury found that the defendant had acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. Combined with a jury verdict award totaling more than $2.5 million, including the judge’s decision to rescind the grant deed at the center of this lawsuit, the punitive award brings the total award to $5.5 million.
Plaintiff Suzanne “Susie” Yorgason had lived in her home, located in the Alamitos Beach neighborhood in Long Beach, for nearly a half-century before Lamphear fraudulently took her home without payment. At the time, Yorgason was bedridden and residing in a nursing home. In addition to swindling her out of her home, Yorgason also accused Lamphear of performing shoddy work on it without obtaining her approval of the required permits, and of moving her personal possessions into a storage unit.
MBK Chapman attorney William D. Chapman, who served as lead counsel for Yorgason, said, “We are extremely gratified by the jury’s verdict and punitive award. A sophisticated real estate investor, Ken Lamphear knew exactly what he was doing when he persuaded Ms. Yorgason to transfer her home to him without any documentation—no promissory note, no deed, no escrow and no payment of any kind.”
In the September 1 verdict, the jury awarded Yorgason $719,787 in past economic loss, $150,000 in past non-economic loss, and $69,882 in future economic loss, for a total of $939,669 in damages. Under California’s Elder Adult and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, Yorgason’s economic damages are not only doubled, adding another $789,669 to her award, but Lamphear will also be liable for Yorgason’s attorneys’ fees and costs, which will amount to several hundred thousand dollars.
Together with the court’s decision to void Lamphear’s transfer deed, thus restoring Yorgason’s house, now valued at $800,000, to her, Yorgason’s total judgment against Lamphear will approach $6 million.
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