The Herald, Thursday, March 31, 1988

“Woman Wins $229,000 Rape Settlement”

SALINAS – A woman raped in a Carmel Woods house where another rape took place two months earlier has won $229,000 in a settlement approved in Superior Court.

The settlement was approved last week by Superior Court Jude E.J. Leach on the second day of a jury trial. The jury was dismissed.

The plaintiff was represented by Maja Hanks of San Francisco, famed among trial lawyers as the pioneer of the “civil rape” case, in which the victims seek monetary damages after a sexual assault.

No arrests were made in either the first rape, on Feb. 7, 1986, or in the second, on April 27, 1986. In both cases, an intruder entered the house on Alta Avenue by a window or door.

Ms. Hanks’ client was awakened after midnight, tied up and repeatedly raped and sodomized by an intruder, who also ransacked the house.

In her suit, filed in August 1986, she alleged that the owners and real estate agents who rented the house to her on April 1, 1986, were negligent.

Knowing that she was a single woman living alone, they should have told her about the February rape, and should have taken precautions to make the premises more secure, the suit claimed.

The suit said that the owners and agents should have foreseen that the same rapist might return, or that, in any case, the windows and doors should have been made more secure to prevent another assault or burglary.

Alta Avenue is a winding, dark street, which is close to Highway 1.

The defendants settled the case without admitting liability or negligence. Their earlier court papers accused the plaintiff of negligence.

Also, in earlier court papers, the owners of the house, B and R Investment Number 12, said that the agent handling the rental never informed the owners of the earlier rape.

The other defendants were the Mitchell Group, Inc., a Carmel real estate firm, and one of its agents.

The plaintiff has received $125,000 in cash, and will receive another $104,000 over the next 15 years, according to an order in the court file.

The plaintiff said she had suffered severe distress, loss of sexual desire, and other psychological disorders. She said she was afraid to be alone, and also claimed damages for lost wages.

At a settlement conference last month, Ms. Hanks demanded $750,000, and the defendants offered nothing, according to documents in the file.

Monterey attorney Andrew Swartz represented B and R Investments. Attorney Fredereick Ebey of Watsonville represented the Mitchell Group. Monterey attorney Charles Warner represented the Mitchell employee who rented the house to the plaintiff.