Bell v. Mason

*1104 Opinion

Defendants and appellants Reginald Mason (Reginald) and Shante Mason (Shante) 1 (collectively, the Masons) appeal a $700,000 judgment in favor of plaintiff and respondent Kelley Angela Bell (Bell) following a jury trial, as well as a postjudgment order awarding Bell $204,500 in attorney fees.

Bell sold her house to Shante for $130,000. Bell then sued the Masons alleging she “suffers from mental retardation” 2 and that the Masons “took advantage of plaintiff’s disabilities in gaining her trust and inducing her to enter into the transaction which deprived her of her home.”

The defense theory is that Bell is of normal intelligence and that she knowingly entered into an arm’s-length transaction with Shante for the sale of her property. At trial, the defense sought to call Dr. Samuel Black (Black) as an expert psychiatric witness to testify Bell is not mentally retarded and that she in fact has average intelligence. The trial court ruled Black could not testify regarding Bell’s mental retardation or lack thereof. Although Black had reviewed, inter alia, Bell’s medical records and had viewed in excess of 15 hours of her videotaped deposition, the trial court ruled that…