Appeals court upholds massive verdict in fatal home birth

The Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed a $108.6 million verdict for the wrongful death of a woman in a botched home birth.

The case was the third-largest plaintiffs’ win of 2012, as ranked by Missouri Lawyers Weekly.

Caleb Horner, his brother John Horner and their sister Amber Horner Leathers were pro se defendants in a lawsuit brought by the parents of Misty Mansfield Horner, who died in 2007 about a month after Caleb and Misty’s daughter, Sydney, was stillborn during a difficult birth at the couple’s Lee’s Summit home. Misty contracted sepsis after Caleb performed an episiotomy on her with a pair of unsterilized household scissors.

Gail and Darrell Mansfield’s lawsuit alleged that the Horners were part of a cult led by John Horner that rejected modern medicine and practiced faith healing. They alleged that Misty had been brainwashed and that the Horners had prevented her from seeking medical attention.

The Horners admitted that they reject modern medicine, but they had alleged that Misty voluntarily shared the belief that illness could be cured through faith and said she chose not to go to a doctor during her pregnancy.

A few days before Christmas 2012, a unanimous Jackson County jury returned a verdict of $8.65 million in actual damages and $100 million in punitive damages, though it’s not clear how much is collectable.

Caleb Horner was determined to be 45 percent at fault for his wife’s death. John Horner was found 35 percent at fault, and Amber Horner Leathers, who served as a midwife at the birth, was found 20 percent at fault.

The Horners were represented on appeal by Todd Moulder and Andrew J. Goodwin, of Morrow Willnauer Klosterman Church in Kansas City. However, the Horners’ self-representation at trial proved problematic on appeal.

In a 59-page opinion, the Western District said most of the Horners’ arguments hadn’t been preserved for appeal because they’d failed to raise the issues at trial. Among other things, the court upheld the verdict’s massive punitive award, which was about 11 times the size of the already large compensatory damages.

“Given the reprehensibility of the Horners’ actions as well as the goal to deter the Horners from similar conduct in the future justifies the 11 to 1 ratio so that, even considering the substantial compensatory damages awarded, substantial punitive damages were also appropriate,” the court said. “To conclude otherwise would ignore the unique circumstances of this case.”

Danny Thomas and Jonathan Soper, of Humphrey, Farrington & McClain in Independence, represented the Mansfields both at trial and on appeal.

The case is Mansfield v. Horner, WD76310.