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LOS ANGELES (CN) — Wrongful death claims arising from a 2020 hit-and-run crash that killed two young brothers in the San Fernando Valley are now in the hands of jury, after lawyers delivered closing arguments in the civil trial Monday.
Plaintiff’s attorney Brian Panish asked the 12 jurors to award some $470 million to his clients, the Iskander family, for the losses of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother Jacob, who were killed as they crossed the street with their mother, Nancy, and youngest brother, Zachary.
“Is that a lot of money?” Panish asked. “Yeah. But it’s a tremendous loss … What could be worse for a parent than to see your kids run down by a drunk driver?”
Rebecca Grossman, the wife of renowned plastic surgeon Peter Grossman, is currently serving 15 years to life in prison, after a jury found her guilty of two counts of second degree murder for hitting the boys. The civil trial covered similar territory, but with one additional defendant: Scott Erickson, a former professional baseball player who was dating Grossman at the time. The two had been drinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant and were driving to her house in Westlake Village in separate cars. Multiple witnesses said the two were driving extremely fast, weaving between lanes, and appeared to be racing each other. Erickson’s car blew through the intersection, narrowly missing Nancy and Zachary, who dove out of the way. Erickson avoided criminal charges by agreeing to film a public service announcement about safe driving.
Panish pulled no punches when savaging the two main codefendants, whom he said were “self-entitled, think they can do whatever they want.”
“She’s never accepted any responsibility, and neither has Erickson,” Panish said. “It’s up to you to hold them accountable.”
During a long day on the witness stand, Panish grilled Erickson over his relationship with Grossman, the night of the crash and his actions afterward. The former pitcher denied any responsibility for the deaths of Mark and Jacob, denied racing Grossman and denied going over 50 miles per hour. He was forced to admit he lied to police about which car he had been driving — he owned two black Mercedes SUVs but was in the habit of swapping one license plate between them.
“He’s an admitted, repeated pathological liar, perjurer, suppressor of evidence,” Panish said of Erickson. “Who drives around with fake license plates? Criminals.” He later added: “If you believe him, I’m not gonna be a lawyer no more.”
“My client made some stupid, stupid decisions related to this case,” Erickson’s attorney Jeff Braun conceded in his closing remarks. “My client lied to the police. He lied to his lawyers in this case. And that’s a hard, hard hole to dig out of.” But he emphasized that Erickson did not hit the two boys, and argued that there was little evidence to prove that he had been racing."
Braun suggested the jury award the Iskanders $10 million, a sum that, he said, “would give them the opportunity to do the things to move their lives forward.”
Grossman’s attorney, Esther Holm, tried to blame the crash on the city of Westlake Village for maintaining what he said was a dangerous crosswalk.
“The city knew about this dangerous condition for years,” she said. “People were having incidents, near misses.”
During his rebuttal argument, Panish shook his head in disbelief and said: “They don’t get it. They don’t accept a single bit of responsibility.”
Should the jury find Grossman or Erickson, or both, negligent in the crash and find their negligence was a substantial factor in causing the deaths of Mark and Jacob, then they will be faced with the near-impossible task of assigning a dollar value to the family’s loss, including the loss of love, companionship, comfort and affection in both the past and the future. They may also choose to compensate Nancy and Zachary for the infliction of emotional distress.
The jury will also have the opportunity to award punitive damages, in order to punish Erickson and Grossman, but that will be done after a separate phase of the trial.
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