Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church of Delaware, Ohio (Slip Opinion), 149 Ohio St. 3d 307

Background

In 2005 the Ohio General Assembly enacted R.C. 2315.18, capping noneconomic (pain-and-suffering) tort damages and providing limited exceptions for certain catastrophic physical injuries.
Jessica Simpkins, raped at age 15 by Pastor Brian Williams, obtained a jury verdict awarding ~$3.65 million in compensatory damages against Delaware Grace Church for negligent hiring/retention/supervision; jury found both economic and substantial noneconomic damages.
Trial court offset a prior $90,000 settlement, applied R.C. 2315.18(B)(2) to reduce Simpkins’s noneconomic award to the statutory per-plaintiff cap (resulting judgment: $500,000 for Simpkins and $75,000 for her father), and reduced future economic damages subject to acceptance or new trial.
Appellants challenged the caps as-applied under the Ohio Constitution (jury trial, open courts/remedy, due process/due course of law, equal protection) and argued the assault involved multiple "occurrences" for purposes of separate caps.
The Fifth District affirmed in part; the Ohio Supreme Court accepted review and affirmed, holding the statute constitutional as applied to these facts and that the sexual acts constituted a single "occurrence."

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether R.C. 2315.18(B)(2) (noneconomic-damage caps) violates the Ohio right to jury trial as applied to a minor sexual-assault victim	Caps nullify the jury’s factual determination of noneconomic damages for a catastrophic injury	Arbino precedent: caps do not usurp jury factfinding; court applies caps as a legal limit to jury findings	Court rejected plaintiff’s as-applied jury-trial challenge; caps do not violate the right to jury trial
Whether the caps violate Article I, §16 (open courts and remedy) as applied	Reducing a $3.5M noneconomic award to statutory cap deprives meaningful remedy	Caps limit recovery but leave meaningful remedies (unlimited economic, capped noneconomic, punitive) consistent with Arbino	Court held no violation of open-courts/remedy rights
Whether the caps violate due process / due course of law when applied to nonphysical catastrophic harms of a minor sexual-assault victim	It is arbitrary to exclude severe nonphysical/psychological injuries from the statutory exceptions, so application lacks rational basis	Rational-basis review applies; legislature reasonably distinguished catastrophic physical injuries as more objectively verifiable; caps advance legitimate public-welfare goals	Court applied rational-basis review (following Arbino) and held caps satisfy due process as applied here
Whether separate criminal acts (oral and vaginal penetration) constitute multiple "occurrences" under R.C. 2315.18(A)(5) allowing multiple per-occurrence caps	Each distinct assault is a separate tort/occurrence, entitling plaintiff to separate caps	Statutory definition of "occurrence" includes "all claims resulting from or arising out of any one person’s bodily injury"; here injuries were indivisible and contemporaneous	Court held the assaults constituted a single occurrence for cap purposes

Key Cases Cited

Arbino v. Johnson & Johnson, 116 Ohio St.3d 468 (2007) (upheld R.C. 2315.18 facially; explained that caps are legal limits applied to jury findings)
Groch v. General Motors Corp., 117 Ohio St.3d 192 (2008) (clarified burden for as-applied constitutional challenges: clear and convincing evidence)
Morris v. Savoy, 61 Ohio St.3d 684 (1991) (struck medical-damage caps under due process; discussed improper allocation of legislative costs to severely injured class)
State v. Bode, 144 Ohio St.3d 155 (2015) (recognized that Ohio Constitution can offer broader protections than federal counterpart in certain contexts)
Mominee v. Scherbarth, 28 Ohio St.3d 270 (1986) (articulated test for legislative acts bearing real and substantial relation to public health, safety, morals, or general welfare)