JPMorgan Juror Says Doomed $8 Billion Award Was Message to Bank
Image by Ben Sutherland
Irelsie Alvarez said she and fellow jurors wanted to send JPMorgan Chase & Co. a message with their startling $8 billion verdict in a Dallas probate case — an award that’s destined to be reduced to no more than $90 million, reports Bloomberg.
The trial was in late 2017, but lawyers for the bank company were back in court on Thursday, saying the defendant is entitled to a take-nothing verdict.
The widow of deceased American Airlines executive Max Hopper sued the bank for allegedly mismanaging the estate of her late husband.
Alvarez, a 26-year-old insurance agent, said she took the suggestion of lawyers for Hopper’s family that a big damage award was needed “in order to prevent this from happening again.”
Reporter Tom Korosec writes that the jury award was the largest of 2017 and the ninth-largest in U.S. history.