Elkington v. Foust

CROCKETT, Chief Justice:

Defendant Rex Foust appeals from a jury verdict which found that he had engaged in a course of sexually assaulting and abusing his adopted daughter plaintiff C-from the time she was nine years old until she left home at age sixteen, for which the jury assessed damages: general $10,000, specials $2,600, and punitive $30,000.

The record discloses only two issues raised by the defendant which give us any serious concern: (1) the matter of instructing the jury as to the consent of the victim as a defense; and (2) whether the damages awarded were excessive.

The plaintiff…