SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento jury has awarded $35 million against Dignity Health’s Methodist Hospital of Sacramento, after finding the hospital liable in a case involving the rape of an intensive care unit patient by a former nurse while she was incapacitated.
The verdict, announced March 19, 2026, includes $20 million in punitive damages intended to punish the hospital. Attorneys John C. Taylor and Natalie Weatherford of Taylor & Ring secured the verdict on behalf of a former patient identified as Jane Doe.
The jury found the hospital violated Welfare & Institutions codes related to the protection of dependent adults and was negligent in failing to protect Doe from sexual abuse. The jury also determined that hospital managing agents, officers and directors “ratified” the sexual abuse after it occurred by failing to investigate Doe’s reports and failing to discipline the perpetrator…