$6 Million Verdict: Daycare Left Toddler Unsupervised for 90 Minutes During Child-on-Child Assault

On January 23, 2008, a three-and-a-half-year-old boy was dropped off at the Kids Quest drop-in childcare center inside Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Onamia, Minnesota, operated by New Horizon Kids Quest. Staff left him without supervision for approximately 90 minutes. During that window, a nine-year-old in the same facility physically and sexually assaulted him. Security footage later confirmed the prolonged assault. Medical examinations and child-protection interviews documented injuries consistent with both physical and sexual abuse, and the boy went on to suffer lasting PTSD.

Attorneys Rich Ruohonen and Chuck Slane of TSR Injury Law in Bloomington took the case on behalf of the child's family. The central theory was straightforward: a licensed childcare facility accepting responsibility for a toddler has a non-delegable duty to provide adequate supervision, and New Horizon's failure to monitor the children in its care for that extended period was the direct cause of the assault.

At the first trial, in February 2015, a Hennepin County jury returned a verdict of approximately $13.5 million. The presiding judge did not let the award stand. In an unusual post-verdict order, she stayed the judgment and directed the parties to mediation. When mediation failed to resolve the case, she granted a defense motion for a new trial, writing that Ruohonen's opening statement had "tainted" and "poisoned" the jury against the defendant.

The case went back to trial before a new jury. That second jury returned a verdict of $6 million, covering past and future healthcare costs, pain, and emotional distress. Ruohonen and Slane subsequently appealed, seeking reinstatement of the original $13.5 million award or a limited retrial on punitive damages and future lost-earnings claims that had been barred from the second proceeding.

A subsequent federal coverage dispute, RSUI Indemnity Co. v. New Horizon Kids Quest, Inc. (D. Minn. 2021), confirmed the $6 million jury award. In that proceeding, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim examined the verdict in detail as part of an insurance coverage dispute over New Horizon's excess liability policy. Minnesota Lawyer named Ruohonen and Slane its Attorneys of the Year for 2017 in recognition of the litigation.