Was $55 million too much for Erin Andrews to win?

Remember one third goes to the lawyer right off the top.

I am not aware of this case, but I’m betting she doesn’t actually wind up with that number (I don’t mean lawyers cut, I mean awarded less). Look at the McD’s coffee case. Initially awarded a few million, in the end she got a few hundred thousand.

Her entire life has changed because the Marriott gave her room number out and then gave the guy the room beside her. This happened recently, not back in the 70’s when people didn’t know better.
Who are we to say how much her entire life change should cost? She is fearful all the time, cannot go to a hotel without checking it from top to bottom for cameras, spy equipment or recording devices.
Thousands if not millions of people saw her naked. Not because she posed nude, or shot a nude video of herself. But because the Marriott gave out her room number! 55 million wasn’t enough IMHO.

@chyna She was filmed? Was she physically attacked?

Yes, the guy drilled out her peep hole and filmed her naked in her hotel room and then put it on the internet. She was not attacked physically.

I think it’s more than fair. Honestly, it’s not nearly enough.

@JLeslie: The filming and posting nude video of her increases the likelihood of her being physically attacked in the future, as it projects an “availability” aspect to potential stalkers and attackers, even if done entirely without her consent.

The award us unlikely to be fully paid, but the publicity is enhanced by the number, a good thing, IMO, as it just might discourage such actions in the future.

Is Erin Andrews a celebrity? I mean, before this? Is the damages based partly on her inflated star/career value?

@Darth_Algar – how much is enough?

Should Marriott go out of business in compensation? How do you assign a value?

She’s a sportscaster. It’s already hard enough for women to get these male dominated roles, now we need to worry about stalkers and our privacy. Erin mentioned in an interview how young women would tweet her and say how much they admire her and want to be as successful as her, but without the whole stalker/hotel thing.

I do think the amount is fair. Her life is forever changed.

@elbandittorso. How do you assign a number? Erin should be happy with 5 million as opposed to 55 million? Do you think Marriott might change the way they do business if they were really squeezed?

She was wronged, yes. But that amount is crazy. What happened to the people who lost limbs or died in the Boston Marathon bombing? What did they collect? Certainly less than this.
The perv was the one who drilled out the hole, put in the camera, filmed and posted the video. He should be the one responsible for the settlement. But that will never happen because he does not have any money and no lawyer would take that case. Instead they go after the big bucks, which ultimately ends up being you and me in the form of higher insurance rates and higher hotel fees.

To set a fair price I do a sense check. If someone said to me, “Will you let me film you trough a peep hole in your hotel room for $1000?” I’d say “No.” “What about $10,000?” No. “How about a 1 million!” “Hell yeah! Wait let me shave for you! ” So in my mind, for me, the line should be somewhere between 10,000 and 1 million.
If someone said “Can I will cut your leg off at the knee for $1 million?” “Nope! ” “What about 10 million?” “Nope.” So that price is higher than 10 Million.

There are so many unbalanced aspects to our legal system, and our economy, that it’s hard to answer without a lot of qualifiers. Finding the perfect award amount will not fix all the other problems in the system.

My kneejerk reaction is that the reward seems very high and out of proportion to other possible financial consequences of other actions.

For example, compared to the low-to-none penalties of other women who have endured other types of stalking, abuse, assault, and so on, it’s much higher. But that’s a whole discussion in itself.

There’s the issue of celebrities and wealthy people getting far more access to legal support and justice than poor unknown people. That’s an entire other discussion, too.

Within the system as I vaguely understand it, I think the common way damages get assessed has to do with actual lost money, and lost income. Sick as it is (and again an entire other topic to discuss), US courts tend to value life by how much money it can earn in future (sigh), so unless your dog cost a lot, someone can kill it and owe you nothing, and killing an elderly person with no income won’t be assessed much value of that type, but ruin the career of someone who could make a lot of money, and they start doing life expectancy times projected salary.

So, according to a web site: “This one really depends. If you’re broadcasting out of a small market for a local studio, you may only make around $50k a year. If you’re a top broadcaster on ESPN, then you could be raking in a couple hundred grand. Or, if you’re that one in a million type guy like John Madden, Jim Nantz, or Bob Costas, you could be making some serious bank. Like 3 to 7 mil a year.”

So depending on what you can convince the court to believe your career would have been like before being scarred for life, you might get $50K x 30, or $1M x 40 or something.

Of course, you get to add insane lawyers costs, even a cut of the rewards, which is also another complete conversation.

So by some points of view, I can see them asking for $55 million dollars, but from other points of view, that seems crazy.

Was the pervert sued? Jailed?

She also got a lot great gigs from the publicity. Her stock went up big time from this epidsode. IMHO another glaring example of why we desperately need torte reform.

@JLeslie: If you Google it you’ll get a lot of info about the case.

Wow @cruiser. You act like she benefited from “her episode.” It wasn’t a TV program that she willingly participated in. She was violated. And I would bet she would rather it never happened than to have “cashed in” on her violation. She will never again feel safe. I don’t think that is a feeling that most men can relate with.

@canidmajor No thanks.

It’s not about her celebrity status, or what other stalker victims might get, nor about what compensation victims of bombings might get. It isn’t about what publicity she may have received from all this, or what she “deserves” in compensation. It’s about punishing those who have wronged others. About truly holding them accountable. The hotel wronged her in an extremely serious manner. The hotel gave the man her room information and booked him into a room right next to hers.They violated not only her trust and not only her privacy, but her safety as well. They put her in danger, and they put other women in danger by helping to foster a culture of rape.

$55 million is paltry compared to what this hotel chain is worth. They take in billions of dollars in revenue a year. $55 million will go unnoticed by them. Punishments should mean something to the one being punished. This means nothing.

@JLeslie: If you’re not willing to do the simplest research, why are you asking questions about this? You can probably get a more comprehensive view from various news reports.

@Darth_Algar: Thank you for recognizing the severity of the threat to her safety, something a number of folks on this thread seem to have missed. I’d give you more GAs if I could.

@chyna…i was merely reporting what i heard on the radio this morning…i think it is great she got a great gig after something truly shitty happened to her.

I’m pretty much with @LuckyGuy on this. She wasn’t physically harmed, thank God, and I do think Marriott should take some responsibility (pay) but I also think the actual perpetrator should have to pay both with a criminal conviction (jail and on the sex offender list) and a civil ruling to pay money.

She was asking for $75 million but the jury thought it was too much, so they awarded $55 million instead. (thank you Google)

Many GA’s for @Darth

While Andrews stayed at the hotel on the campus of Vanderbilt University, she was secretly filmed by a serial stalker named Michael David Barrett, who was staying in the room next door. Barrett was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to interstate stalking. He admitted to checking into hotel rooms next to Andrews on three separate occasions and making two nude videos of her through peep holes that he rigged up.

Andrews’ legal team alleges that the owner and management company behind the Nashville Marriott, West End Hotel Partners and Windsor Capital Group, were negligent.
“What could a man calling a hotel asking to be placed next to a woman mean?” Kinnard said, as quoted by The Tennessean. “It could be an ex-husband, it could be an ex-boyfriend, somebody who wants to hurt that woman. It could be somebody no telling what he wants to do.” source- CNN

A hotel has no business telling a stranger which room I’m in and then book the stranger in the room next to me. The hotel is negligent.

@dammitjanetfromvegas – I don’t think there’s any question that the hotel is negligent; I said that in the original question.

Is it $55million negligent? That’s the question.

@JLeslie I’m not sure how you are with @LuckyGuy on this without knowing the story.
The guy is responsible for a portion of the settlement.

Yes, @JLeslie, she probably was physically harmed. Geez She was not physically assaulted by the stalker, but the level of stress and fear she has endured because of this has very likely harmed her. I would think that you, with your focus on all things medical and physical, would understand that.

If the guy had stabbed her in the face on the way to the ice machine, would you question whether the hotel is $55m negligent?

Of course she was harmed. Of course the hotel is negligent. I’d use a stronger word: culpable. Do I think $55m is ridiculously high? Yes.

Unimportant side note: I’ve stayed at the Marriott in Nashville.

They can ask the male perpetrator to pay many millions but chances are he doesn’t have a pot to piss in. They can garnish his future wages but most likely he will never in his lifetime earn millions of dollars. Therefore the majority of the settlement will be from the corporation for whom a few dozen million is relatively paltry.

It may seem excessive as an award (I don’t think it is), but it makes the cost to Marriott (a little) more than the cost of normal operations.

Seems more than fucked up when Trayvon Martin’s parents have settled a wrongful-death claim for an amount thought to be more than $1 million against the homeowners association of the Sanford subdivision where their teenage son was killed. 55 Million for a peep hole video compared to a million dollars for the loss of a son’s life is beyond messed up and reflects very poorly on where many peoples moral sentiments on society lie. Pretty girls boobs and butt Peeping Tom video – $55 MIL and 17 year old kid shot dead on the ground…$1 MIL. Seriously? Really? . IMO who ever is in charge of this circus needs to be run out of town.

#FUCKEDUP
#Tortreform

@Yetanotheruser It costs us. The customer. Not that my main concern is the cost to Marriott’s customers, I care about what this woman went through, but $10million isn’t sufficient? Give her $15m, because she has to pay her lawyers.

I really fucked up not going to court after my accident I guess? I have permanent physical damage. I have mental stress; I fight with my husband almost every time we are in the car, because I’m more paranoid, especially when we drive hauling a trailer. I don’t trust people to drive me in golf cart type vehicles (my accident was in a golf cart). My girlfriend who was also in the accident had a head injury and permanently lost her sense of smell and taste. I think she deserves more money than this video incident. It’s just that Marriott has deep pockets and lots of insurance.

This begs the question, is it ethical to go after the deep pockets, when someone else really committed the crime?

What promise does Marriott make to protect us? As a woman I’m already wary at hotels. I lock my door. I let someone know where I am, and check in with them during the day. I don’t need to be violated (theft, video, etc) or assaulted to feel like I need to be careful at a hotel. Is it different to know this and actually go through something horrible? Sure it is, but the real scary is the stalker.

It is reasonable to expect the hotel will not divulge our room number. If I were her would I try for some money? Maybe. Would I expect $55million? Never.

I think of it more of a punishment to the people that did the wrongdoing instead of a reward to the person that was wronged.

Let’s take a separate case, for example Verizon and Supercookies. They only got a 1.35 million slap on the wrist and will probably learn nothing.

@JLeslie :: If the free market works this shouldn’t cost the consumer anything.

@johnpowell How the fuck can you or anyone compare “supercookies” to a really hot girl who had a stalker physically make huge efforts to steal private images of her totally nakedness to the loss of a life a teenage kid no matter what his circumstance? Cookes..vs…invasion of privacy…vs loss of a young life? Are you suggesting “supercookies” should have been paid a whole lot more than a 17 year old who is dead and gone or maybe more compared to a woman twerking and gets kick ass job opportunities that she most likely would have not gotten had a voyeuristic douche-bag had not taken advantage of her?

#areyoukiddingme?

Who lost their life?

Are you siding with the perv? I really can’t tell. Are you saying the perv is the victim since it helped her career? Seriously I am trying and I can’t figure out who you have sympathy for. Who is this 17 year old kid?

All I am saying is that a speeding ticket for 500 dollars is a big deal to me and Trump wouldn’t give a fuck and he would continue speeding. Fines should be damaging enough to alter behavior.

For perspective Marriott had 15B of revenue last year and 2 Billion of profit. 55 million is pretty much nothing to them.

@Cruiser

Oh, well since she’s really hot that changes everything. The world can always use more spank material, regardless of how it’s sourced. Shit, this woman should feel flattered that guys out there want to see her naked.

@johnpowell Mostly yes, but also a little no. Prices are where they are, because partly there are lawsuits. If the hotels need to pay out for things like this they raise prices, they all do. True the market usually pays only what it can bear, but when hotels basically collude on pricing the consumer has little power.

Like I said, I think Marriott should pay, I just think this number is really high. I have my doubts all that money gets paid. I would think it will be appealed.

Also, thanks for looking up their profit, I’m going to look up their stock now too.

Way too much.