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Slain girl's estate asks for new trial over damage award in death

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HEATHER CHAPIN-FOWLER

Dixon, who was 11 years old at the time of her death, was stabbed repeatedly by her foster father in October 2004. At the time, she was in the custody of the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services.

Dixon's estate sued the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services as well as the county commissioners who were seated at the time of her death.

The jury found the county to be negligent in regards to Dixon's placement in the foster home of Paul Efaw and awarded her estate $600,000 in March.

Last month, visiting Judge Judith Cross overturned the jury's decision, lowering it to $100,000 saying the jury "lost its way" while coming to a decision.

Cross gave the estate 21 days to accept her ruling and if it didn't, a new trial, only on the damages issue, would be conducted to determine another award amount, stated court records and an attorney for the estate.

"There's a strong presumption for jurys and jury verdicts. Our view was the jury has spoken and that view usually prevails especially when you don't have an amount that is way off kilter. If this would have been a $98 trillion verdict, you could understand the judge taking it out of the jury's hands, but $600,000 seemed fair and reasonable and within the range of what a reasonable judge could have found and that's what we argued to the judge, but she obviously disagreed," said Ken Myers, an attorney for the estate.

Additionally, the estate "is certainly considering appealing (the court's) ruling (that reduced the award for damages)," Myers said.

Meanwhile, the county is responsible to pay for the estate's attorney fees. The county disputes the figures submitted by Willard Attorney Jim Martin, who also represents the estate.

An attorney for the county, Joan Szuberla, confirmed yesterday that the county is disputing the fees, but didn't know the details, she said.

"The county has issues they're not happy with. They got the damages overturned, but they wanted the whole thing to be overturned," Myers said.

Cross canceled a hearing yesterday concerning the attorney fees issue because she was presiding over another court proceeding which posed a scheduling conflict, said Myers.

A new date hasn't been scheduled yet, according to a court spokesperson.

2007 Nov 16