Woman Awarded $100,000.00 Over Nude Pictures
A woman who was awarded $100,000 after pictures of her nude torso appeared without her permission in a St. Louis area publication will be afforded to chance to collect even more money.
The woman, who now lives in Georgia and has been identified only as "Jane Doe," had already sued a Creve Coeur cosmetic surgery company claiming malpractice when her lawyers showed her a 2006 Riverfront Times newspaper article about cosmetic surgery.
The article was accompanied by photos of her nude torso before and after surgery to reduce excess skin produced by her dramatic weight loss.
She sued Body Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and Skin Care Center Inc. and Drs. V. Leroy Young, Robert Centeno and C.B. Boswell. In a trial in November 2009, jurors awarded her $100,000 in compensatory damages, finding that the doctors and practice had violated their fiduciary duty to her but not her privacy.
Riverfront Times reporter Kristen Hinman and the newspaper were not sued, but Young blamed her in court, saying she had promised not to use the photos and promised to let him review the article before it ran.
Hinman denied both of Young's claims, but jurors never heard that denial and lawyers for the practice used the allegations involving Hinman to argue against punitive damages.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals said Wednesday that jurors should have been allowed to hear Hinman's testimony. But the panel stopped short of ordering a new trial, with the majority saying that a new jury should hear only the issue of whether punitive damages should be awarded on the breach of fiduciary duty claim.
