8
$17,000,000
year-old woman who died from a morphine overdose while in a
Gravel Resources of Arizona v. Salt River Sand & nursing home. On Dec. 2, 2003, Sylvia Culpepper was admitted
Rock, Maricopa County Superior Court, CV 2004- to Tucson Medical Center for sciatic pain after a fall. She was pre-
004737 scribed 15 mg of morphine sulfate tablets (MS Contin) twice a
Gravel Resources of Arizona leased three sand and day. A Tucson Medical Center physician later increased to the
gravel quarries to Salt River Sand & Rock, a Salt River dosage to 30 mg, but the hospital’s case manager didn’t delete
Pima–Maricopa Indian Community company. Salt River Sand & the previous order. Dr. Scott Bolhack was a physician with Tucson
Rock mined those quarries in Sun City, Glendale and Queen Creek Long Term Care, and his nurse practitioners included Jean
and paid Gravel Resources royalties. Gravel Resources claimed Salt Marsalla. When Culpepper was transferred to non-party Manor
River Sand & Rock failed to report all materials it removed and that Care, a skilled nursing facility, both of the prescriptions went with
it underpaid the royalties. Gravel Resources also alleged that the her. Manor Care reviewed the medication orders with Marsalla.
mines were left in an environmentally unsafe condition. Salt River Manor Care staff began giving Culpepper both the original and
Sand & Rock denied liability, and said Gravel Resources had orally increased dosages (which totaled 90 mg per day), and ignored
9
agreed to modify how the royalty rate was recalculated each year. symptoms of morphine intoxication such as hallucinations and
The jury awarded $17,000,000.14 This was the second “top 10” lethargy. OmniCare Pharmacy dispensed the morphine as pre-
verdict in two years related to sand and gravel mining disputes. scribed. Culpepper died of acute morphine intoxication on
December 8.
$10,594,400
Culpepper’s three children were awarded a total of $6 million.
Several defendants (Tucson Long Term Care, Bolhack, Marsalla
Media Services Ltd. v. Pure Verge, L.L.C. dba ePoint and Omnicare Pharmacy) were found zero percent at fault; non-
Processing, Ltd., June An, and Cory Harris, Maricopa party Manor Care was found 90 percent at fault; and Tucson
County Superior Court, CV 2004-005095 Medical Center was found 10 percent at fault. 17
This was another fraud case, which also had claims for
breach of contract, misrepresentation, negligence and conversion. A Averages and medians by venue
merchant account allows a company to offer payment processing to To calculate an average for a particular county, we add up all the
clients through credit and debit cards. Many of those transactions verdict totals, then divide by how many verdicts there are. In
today are done over the Internet. Pure Verge, doing business as some counties, typically a few extra-large verdicts skew the aver-
ePoint Processing, was a company that provided credit and debit ages higher, so taking a look at the medians as well can help. To
payment processing to merchants over the Internet. June An and calculate the median, we place the verdict totals in value order
Cory Harris were the officers, directors and ultimate owners of and find the middle number, where exactly half of the verdicts are
ePoint and ran its day-to-day payment processing operations.
For three months, ePoint processed credit card transactions for
Media Services Limited under their merchant service agreement. 2008 Reported
The defendants refused to pay the proceeds of the payment transac- Arizona Verdict
tions due to Media Services. Media Services alleged that ePoint was Averages vs. Medians
the alter ego of An and Harris, and that they kept large amounts of
the money for their personal use including luxury vehicles and
AVERAGE MEDIAN
homes. Defendants said they never received the money from the
STATEWIDE $3,523,239 $52,000
associated merchant bank, and that the bank had closed the account
and seized millions of dollars. U.S. Dist. Ct. 33,769,589 733,500
The jury awarded $6.8 million, including $2.6 million in puni-
Pinal 22,289,228 22,289,228
tive damages. The jury allocated fault 50/50 to June An and Cory
Harris. The court ruled on the equitable claims and, finding suffi-
Maricopa 1,931,865 41,799
1
cie0nt evidence to support them, awarded damages of $1,900,750 Mohave 1,535,000 1,350,000
against June An and $1,893,650 against Cory Harris. 15
Gila 411,500 411,500
$6,000,000 Pima 367,875 55,000
Mary Culpepper et al. 16 v. TMC Healthcare, Cochise 277,046 277,046
Tucson Long Term Care Medical Group, Inc., Coconino 65,051 65,051
Scott Bolhack, Jean Marsalla, and Omnicare
Pharmacy Services, Inc., Pima County Yuma 49,750 49,750
Superior Court, C-20053827 Yavapai 39,021 38,252
This was an elder abuse case brought by the family of an 81-
