Jury selection began this week in the wrongful death civil trial stemming from the 2019 opioid overdose of Los Angeles Angels baseball pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
The Skaggs’ family filed the 2021
lawsuit against the Angels Major League Baseball (MLB) team, alleging wrongful death, negligence, and gross negligence in failing to stop an employee who supplied Skaggs with the fatal drug.
“Nothing will ease the pain and heartache of losing their only child and, for Carli, her husband and soulmate,” Skaggs' family attorney Rusty Hardin said in a
statement.
Skaggs was 27 when he died in a Texas hotel room while on a team road trip.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner listed the cause of death as a mixture of ethanol, oxycodone, and fentanyl intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.
Skaggs was supplied with the substance that killed him by former Angels’ communications director, Eric Kay, who was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for drug distribution after Skaggs died, according to a U.S. Department of Justice
press release.
“As the federal grand jury indictment made plainly and painfully clear, were it not for the fentanyl in the counterfeit pill provided by Angels employee Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today and if the Angels had done a better job of supervising Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today,” Hardin said.
In 2019, the Angels hired a former federal prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into Skaggs' death, which determined that the sports team was unaware that he was using opioids.
"Nor was anyone in management aware or informed of any employee providing opioids to any player," Angels spokesperson Marie Garvey said in a
statement. "The lawsuits are entirely without merit and the allegations are baseless and irresponsible. The Angels Organization strongly disagrees with the claims made by the Skaggs family and we will vigorously defend these lawsuits in court.”
Some 80 percent of drug-related deaths among youths statewide are deaths by Fentanyl overdose,
according to the California Department of Education; and a
Substance Use in California report published by the California Health Care Almanac found that 2.9 million, or 9 percent of Californians aged 12 and olde,r have a substance use disorder.
However, in this case, Skaggs was an adult with free will, according to Kabateck LLP managing partner Shant Karnikian in Los Angeles.
“That’s something that the Angels have going in their favor that this was a tragic problem and it was Tyler’s problem but that still doesn't excuse enabling it,” Karnikian told NTD.
Kay’s criminal culpability is established with his conviction and incarceration; however, Karnikian predicts that what remains is proving corporate responsibility on behalf of the MLB team.
The Skaggs family is seeking $210 million in damages from the team.
“What surprises me is the lengths that the Angels are willing to go to keep litigating this and fight the family,” added Karnikian who is a complex civil litigation attorney. “It's not the easiest thing to prove, but it's not a very, very high bar either to prove that they knew or should have known.”
