The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a $400,000 jury award for a woman who sued an LDS church in Kalispell, Mont., after she was injured in a fall on an icy church walkway five years ago.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had appealed the award for Jonnie M. Davis, saying not enough evidence existed to support the verdict.A unanimous court disagreed in its ruling Thursday, according to Justice R.C. McDonough.
The high court also rejected church claims that several jury instructions were erroneous and that an expert witness should not have been allowed to testify about the slope of the walkway where the woman fell.
The Flathead County jury awarded $401,864 in damages to Davis, a volunteer youth seminary teacher at the church's Kalispell Stake Center.
Davis said she was leaving the center Feb. 25, 1985, when she slipped on an icy, sloped walkway, fell on her head and neck, and severely injured her spine. She has had five operations on her spine since, court records said.