LOS ANGELES -- The lawyer for Rock Hudson's former lover, already awarded $14.5 million because the late actor conspired to keep his AIDS infection a secret, asked the jury to at least double the amount Thursday to send a message that could 'save the lives of untold millions.'
The jury deliberated more than two hours Thursday without reaching a verdict on whether to award Marc Christian punitive and exemplary damages above the $14.5 million in compensatory damages the panel awarded him Wednesday against Hudson's estate and his personal secretary.
The Superior Court jury was scheduled to resume deliberations in the second phase of the trial Friday morning.
A lawyer for Christian, 35, Hudson's live-in lover in the mid-1980s, asked the jury to award him at least $14.5 million in punitive and exemplary damages against Hudson's personal secretary, Mark Miller, for concealing Hudson's affliction with AIDS.
The jury of seven women and five men ruled Wednesday that Hudson and Miller had engaged in 'outrageous' conduct in concealing the deadly disease from Christian so the actor could continue having sex with the younger man.
Harold Rhoden, Christian's lawyer, told the jury the second phase was 'far more important' because the panel could send a message to the world 'that this kind of conduct ought to be stopped' and thereby help millions of people who might find themselves in a position similar to Christian's.
'If you have the opportunity to save the lives of untold millions, surely you must be blessed,' Rhoden said.
The law does not allow Rhoden to seek punitive-exemplary damages against the estate of a dead man, so Rhoden was seeking the damages against Miller, who lied to Christian on Hudson's orders when asked if the actor had AIDS.
Miller testified Thursday his net worth was 'less than $100,000.' But he condeded he could be a beneficiary of Hudson's estate, estimated at about $10 million excluding royalties, most of which was put in a trust for charities.
Rhoden told the jurors they had brought in a 'magnificent verdict' Wednesday and asked them to 'bring in the same amount' for punitive-exemplary damages.
Miller's lawyer, Andrew Banks, urged the jury not to be 'mean-spirited or evil' and reminded the panel that it was Hudson, not Miller, who had sex with Christian.
He said Miller had persuaded Christian to see a doctor about his health and had disregarded advice by Hudson's friend and executor, Wallace Sheft, to throw Christian out of the house and refuse to feed him.
'This is not the action of a person who had malice against Marc Christian,' Banks said.
'Judge him by his actions at the time,' Banks urged jurors, after telling them Miller did not know much about AIDS when Hudson came down with it.
But Rhoden, responded, 'What Miller did was rotten when he did it and anyone would have known it.'
In the first phase of the trial, the jury had to find a preponderance of evidence that Miller and Hudson conspired to conceal Hudson's affliction with AIDS from Christian.
But in the punitive-exemplary phase, the jury must find 'clear and convincing evidence' Miller behaved outrageously and engaged in 'despicable conduct.'
Christian, Hudson's live-in lover, sued Miller, 55, and the late actor's estate, claiming that although he has tested negative for the AIDS virus, he has lived in fear of the deadly disease since finding out from a TV newscast that Hudson had been diagnosed with AIDS.
Hudson died of complications of the disease at age 59 in October 1985.
The jury deliberated three days before awarding $14.5 million in compensatory damages to Christian, agreeing with his claim that the conspiracy was designed to enable Hudson to continue having high-risk sex with Christian.
