Soap opera star Hunter Tylo may have to pay more than $750,000 in damages and attorney fees to a psychotherapist whom she sued more than four years ago for negligent treatment of her children, On Point has learned.

Hunter Tylo

The case has been another disaster for Tylo, whose son Michael, 19, drowned in the swimming pool of her Henderson, Nev., home after suffering a seizure. She alleged, among other things, that his death was “directly related to the failures, malpractice and other conduct” of Shanna Downing and the counseling center where the therapist practiced.

The litigation never reached the merits of Tylo's allegations and her most recent attorney withdrew from the case in December 2009. With Tylo representing herself, a Las Vegas judge recently granted Downing's motion for summary judgment on her countersuit for abuse of process, a tort that is similar to malicious prosecution.

Downing attorney Michael J. Shannon (Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, Las Vegas) noted during a hearing on the motion that Tylo had missed discovery deadlines and failed to appear for depositions.

Clark County District Court Judge Timothy C. Williams last year dismissed an earlier award to Downing of $749,185 in damages and attorney fees, finding Tylo had not been able to properly defend the counterclaim because legal papers were not sent to her current address. Shannon doesn't expect the judge to be so forgiving this time.

“I don't think she's going to get a second bite of that apple,” he tells On Point.

Shannon believes his client could now win a judgment of around $850,000, reflecting the costs of another year of litigation. To make matters even worse for Tylo, the other defendant in the case — Horizon Family Therapy And Wellness — has filed a motion for its attorney fees.

Downing, a licensed clinical social worker, treated Tylo's children while their parents were going through a divorce. Tylo sued her and Horizon in April 2006, alleging violations of professional ethics.

After her son Michael drowned in October 2007, she tried to add a wrongful-death claim to her suit. Downing had allegedly advised her that once the stress was eliminated from Michael's life, his seizures would disappear and that he did not need to take anti-seizure medication.

Downing's treatment of her family was “a disaster,” Tylo told Larry King in an interview. But Judge Williams ruled she could not amend her complaint because she had not produced an expert to testify, as required by Nevada law, that Downing's alleged negligence was a proximate cause of Michael's death.

Downing, meanwhile, had filed her counterclaim, in which she alleged Tylo sued her as payback for her refusal to testify on Tylo's behalf in the divorce case. The parties never really got to the merits of that claim either since Tylo, in effect, defaulted.

“She just became kind of non-responsive,” Shannon says.

Tylo — who, ironically, plays a therapist on “The Bold and the Beautiful” — has represented herself for most of the time since her first lawyer, Patricia L. Vaccarino, withdrew two years ago. At a May 20 hearing on Downing's renewed motion for summary judgment, she asked for a continuance.

“She has other attorneys who she needs to interview but has not had time to do so due to a family crisis,” the court's minutes say.

But Williams granted the motion “based on [her] failure to designate [an] expert witness within the prescribed time period.” To pursue her malpractice claim, she needed to present expert testimony that Downing's treatment of her children was below the standard of care for a therapist.

The original award on Downing's counterclaim included $95,000 in attorney fees. Damages for abuse of process, which are rarely awarded, can include emotional injury and loss of income.

In August 2008, Vaccarino obtained a judgment of $61,912 against Tylo for her fees.

By Matthew Heller
7/20/10