RICHMOND, Va. — Four years after violence broke out at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, a jury ordered white nationalist leaders and organizations to pay more than $26 million in damages to people who suffered physical or mental injuries as a result of the event.
The bulk of that money — $24 million — was for punitive damages, but a judge later reduced that amount to $350,000 — to be shared among eight plaintiffs. On Monday, a federal appeals court reinstated more than $2 million in punitive damages, ruling that each of the plaintiffs should receive $350,000, instead of the $43,750 each would have received under the lower court ruling.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond upheld the jury’s award of $2 million in punitive damages, but ruled that a state law that caps punitive damages at $350,000 should be applied individually rather than to all eight plaintiffs, as a lower court held.
The ruling is the result of a federal lawsuit against two dozen white nationalists and organizations who participated in two days of demonstrations in Charlottesville to protest the city’s plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
On the second day after the “Unite the Right” rally was declared an unlawful assembly, James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist from Maumee, Ohio, intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of others. Fields, who was one of the defendants in the civil case, is now serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes.
The 4th Circuit panel denied a request by the defendants that the court ask the Virginia Supreme Court to rule on whether each plaintiff can receive $350,000 in punitive damages. In its ruling, the panel said it found the language and history of the state law “clear enough to predict how the Virginia Supreme Court would rule.”
“More than two years ago, the jury used the $24 million punitive damages award to send an unmistakable message to defendants and the public about the outrageous misconduct that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia. While the law compels us to reduce the punitive damages award, it is long past time that that message be delivered,” Chief Justice Albert Diaz wrote in the 3-0 ruling.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they were pleased with the court’s ruling.
“Today’s decision restores more than $2 million in damages from the jury’s verdict, which sent a clear message against racist and anti-Semitic hatred and violence,” attorneys Roberta Kaplan, David E. Mills and Gabrielle E. Tenzer said in a statement.
Lawyers for the suspects did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The 2021 trial verdict was a punishment for the white nationalist movement, particularly the two dozen individuals and organizations accused in a federal lawsuit of orchestrating violence against African Americans, Jews and others in a carefully planned conspiracy.