Jurors kept weighing the Iskander family’s wrongful-death lawsuit against Rebecca Grossman and Scott Erickson on Wednesday after spending all day Tuesday without reaching a verdict. The civil case could decide whether one or both defendants will be held financially responsible for the deaths of two boys struck by Grossman’s car in Westlake Village.
That question has now been handed to the jury after closing arguments ended Monday in Van Nuys Superior Court. The family’s lawyer, Brian Panish, asked jurors to award hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, arguing that it was not an accident when someone speeds, drinks and drives impaired. The defense did not leave that account standing unchallenged, and the split over what happened on Triunfo Canyon Road is now what jurors must sort out.
The suit was filed by Nancy Iskander, Karim Iskander and their son Zachary over the deaths of the couple’s two younger boys. It contends that Grossman and Erickson had cocktails on Sept. 29, 2020, then later took part in a speed contest. Panish said the evidence shows conduct that was far beyond a simple mistake, and he pressed for a large damages award that would reflect the scale of the loss.
Grossman’s lawyer, Esther Holm, rejected the claim that her client was impaired by alcohol or Valium. Holm said Grossman was traveling about 52 mph, roughly 7 mph over the speed limit, and was not racing Erickson. She also said Grossman never saw the children before the crash because she was distracted by the boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander, who was diving out of the way of Erickson’s vehicle. Erickson’s lawyer, Jeff Braun, went even further, telling jurors his client was not negligent, not racing and not impaired.
That clash leaves the panel with the most consequential job in the case: deciding whether Grossman, Erickson, both of them or neither should be held financially liable for the boys’ deaths. Braun argued the damages, if any, should start at zero and be set at no more than $10 million, while Panish urged jurors to put a far higher price on the losses. Deliberations were scheduled to continue Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in January 2021, also names Dr. Peter Grossman as a defendant, but the focus in court has remained on the two drivers and what happened on the Westlake Village street that night. With jurors still out after a full day of deliberations, the case now turns on whether they accept the plaintiffs’ account of racing and impairment or the defense’s insistence that the crash was not caused by what the family claims.
