Appeals court reinstates $98M verdict awarded to Susan Cox Powell’s parents

TACOMA, Wash. — The $98.5 million verdict a jury awarded to the parents of Susan Cox Powell in 2020 has been reinstated by a Washington appeals court.

Chuck and Judy Cox sued the state of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services in 2013, following the Feb. 5, 2012, murder-suicide involving their son-in-law, Josh Powell, and their grandchildren, Charlie and Braden Powell.

Social worker Elizabeth Hall arrived with the boys for a court-authorized supervised visit with their father that day at a home he had rented. A Washington judge had previously ordered Powell be granted supervised visitation rights with his sons.

As detailed in @thecoldpodcast season 1, Josh was allowed to have supervised visitation with the boys at a home he'd rented, after Charlie and Braden were taken into state protective custody. It was during one of those visits that the murder-suicide occurred.

— Dave Cawley (@ashergrey) April 18, 2023

Hall said Powell slammed the front door of the home after the boys entered and locked her out. She called 911 but before police could arrive, the house burst into flames. Firefighters would later find the boys’ bodies just feet inside the front door.

The civil suit accused the department social workers of negligence in their handling of the Powell children during the visit.

Following a weekslong trial that started in February 2020 but was delayed for months by the COVID-19 pandemic, the jury ruled unanimously that the state agency had acted negligently and awarded the Coxes $98.5 million.

Weeks after the trial, attorneys for the state filed a motion requesting a new trial or a reduction in the damages. During a September 2020 hearing for that request, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stanley Rumbaugh said it was clear to him that the graphic nature of the killings had played into the jury’s decision.

“These were extreme and inflammatory facts that related to the killings of these boys,” Rumbaugh said. “They’re bound to bestir passion in the hearts and minds of any rational person.”

Over the last few years, lawyers for the Coxes including @annembremner have argued the judge's action was improper. The state of Washington, meantime, raised several arguments in an effort to nullify the jury verdict and send the case back for a new trial.

— Dave Cawley (@ashergrey) April 18, 2023

Rumbaugh said his conscious was “shocked” by the verdict size before he cut the jury’s award to $32.8 million. Or, he said, the parties could retry the case.

That decision was then appealed.

The latest ruling, issued Tuesday morning by Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals, upheld the jury’s original decision and reinstated the jury’s damage award in full.

Susan Powell remains missing since her disappearance on Dec. 7, 2009. Her husband is widely believed to have killed her, though he was never arrested or charged in connection with her disappearance.

— Dave Cawley (@ashergrey) April 18, 2023

Susan Powell disappeared from the couple’s home in West Valley City on Dec. 7, 2009. Investigators believe she is dead but her body has never been located. Josh Powell was never arrested or formally charged with a crime related to his wife’s disappearance.