Korryn Gaines Settlement: $3M Deal and Overturned $38M Verdict

The Korryn Gaines settlement with Baltimore County came to $3 million, paid in 2021 to her estate, her parents, and her daughter Karsyn. That figure resolved only part of the family’s case. The jury had awarded more than $37 million in 2018, most of it to Gaines’ son Kodi, who was five when he was shot alongside his mother. His portion never turned into a payout of that size: a Maryland damages cap cut it to $400,000, and in 2024 the state’s highest court granted the officer qualified immunity on the federal claim that had driven the jury’s number.¹²

What the $3 Million Settlement Covered

On July 31, 2021, Baltimore County agreed to pay $3 million to settle the claims brought by Gaines’ estate, her parents, and her daughter Karsyn Courtney.¹ The agreement contained no admission of liability by the county or by any officer. Once the funds were paid, the family agreed to file for dismissal of the case.³

Family attorney J. Wyndal Gordon described the resolution as “responsible and amicable” and said it “takes into account limitations on damages and the humanity and dignity of Korryn Gaines and her family.”³

The settlement was explicitly partial. It did not resolve the claims brought on behalf of Kodi, whose jury award had been the largest single component of the 2018 verdict. Those claims continued through the courts for three more years.

Why the $38 Million Verdict Didn’t Hold

The Gaines family sued Baltimore County and the officers involved in September 2016, and the case went to trial in early 2018. In February 2018, a Baltimore County Circuit Court jury found that Corporal Royce Ruby’s use of deadly force was unreasonable and awarded more than $37 million.⁴ Kodi received the bulk: $32.85 million in noneconomic damages plus $23,542 for past medical expenses. Karsyn received $4.53 million. Smaller amounts went to Gaines’ parents and her estate. No punitive damages were awarded.⁵

The verdict didn’t survive intact. On February 15, 2019, Circuit Court Judge Mickey J. Norman threw out the award using a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, ruling that Ruby was entitled to qualified immunity because he was “behaving lawfully as a police officer” when he fired.⁶

The family appealed, and on July 1, 2020, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals (now the Appellate Court of Maryland) reversed Judge Norman. It ruled that he had “abused his discretion” and that factual disputes over the Fourth Amendment excessive force claims belonged with the jury. The court reinstated the $38 million verdict and sent the case back to the circuit court to address damages caps and remaining issues.⁷⁸ With the verdict restored but the cap fight still ahead, the $3 million deal resolved the estate, parent, and daughter claims. Kodi’s went separately.

How Kodi’s Award Shrank to $400,000

Two forces cut Kodi’s share of the verdict down: Maryland’s statutory cap on damages against local governments, and a series of rulings on qualified immunity.

Maryland’s Local Government Tort Claims Act generally caps liability at $400,000 per individual claim. For claims arising from a law enforcement officer’s intentional torts or constitutional violations, a separate cap of $890,000 applies to all claims from the same incident.⁹ The family’s attorneys argued the state caps did not apply because the jury verdict rested on the federal civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which has no damages ceiling. Gordon put it plainly at trial: “There are no caps on federal constitutional violations.”⁵

On remand, the circuit court disagreed. It dismissed the federal Section 1983 claims and the state constitutional claims, leaving only a battery verdict intact and subject to the state cap. Kodi’s payment was reduced to $400,000, plus $160,000 in post-judgment interest.¹⁰

The 2024 Qualified Immunity Ruling

Kodi’s lawyers pressed on, focused on his federal constitutional claim. His legal posture differed from his mother’s because he was not the person police were attempting to arrest. As a bystander, his claim fell under the Fourteenth Amendment’s “shocks the conscience” standard rather than the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” test.²

In April 2023, the Appellate Court of Maryland held that no prior case law clearly established that an officer violates the Fourteenth Amendment by unintentionally shooting and injuring a bystander, and it upheld qualified immunity for Ruby on Kodi’s claim.¹⁰ The ACLU of Maryland, the Public Justice Center, and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights filed an amicus brief in October 2023 urging Maryland’s highest court to take up the case.¹¹

On June 25, 2024, the Supreme Court of Maryland issued a split decision holding that Ruby was entitled to qualified immunity on Kodi’s substantive due process claim because the law was “not clearly established” at the time of the 2016 shooting. The court did not decide whether Ruby’s conduct actually shocked the conscience. It concluded that no controlling precedent or “robust consensus of authority” with similar facts would have put an officer on notice that such conduct was unconstitutional.²

Two justices dissented. Justice Watts and Justice Hotten argued that the officer’s conduct was so “obviously unlawful and patently offensive” that qualified immunity should not apply regardless of whether a factually identical prior case existed.¹²

The Pending U.S. Supreme Court Petition

In November 2024, Kodi’s legal team filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Maryland ruling. The petition argues that the state court erred by demanding a prior case with nearly identical facts before denying qualified immunity, and that this approach ignores the “obviousness principle” recognized in Supreme Court decisions such as Hope v. Pelzer and Taylor v. Riojas.¹² As of mid-2025, the petition remained pending.

The Underlying Shooting

Korryn Gaines, 23, was shot and killed by Corporal Royce Ruby on August 1, 2016, during a standoff at her Randallstown, Maryland, apartment. Baltimore County officers had come to serve two warrants: one for Gaines on a failure-to-appear charge tied to a March 2016 traffic stop, and one for her fiancé, Kareem Courtney, on an assault charge.¹³ After knocks went unanswered, an officer entered with a key from the landlord.¹⁴

Officers reported that Gaines pointed a shotgun at them. A roughly six-hour barricade followed. According to Ruby’s account, he fired after Gaines raised the shotgun toward officers, then fired again after entering the apartment when she raised it a second time.¹³ Gaines was killed. Kodi, five years old and in the apartment with her, was struck and critically wounded.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger reviewed the shooting and ruled it justified, declining to file criminal charges against Ruby or any other officer involved. Ruby later retired after 21 years on the force.¹⁵ The civil case, and the payments it produced, moved on a separate track from that criminal review.

1
Maryland Matters. Baltimore County Reaches 3 Million Settlement Agreement With Korryn Gaines Family
2
Supreme Court of Maryland. Cunningham v. Baltimore County, No. 9
3
CNN. Korryn Gaines Settlement
4
WMAR. Baltimore County Finalizes 3 Million Settlement in Korryn Gaines Case
5
CNN. Baltimore Jury Award Korryn Gaines Shooting
6
WBAL-TV. Judge Overturns $38 Award Settlement in Death of Korryn Gaines
7
Fox Baltimore. Appeals Court Reinstates 38 Million to Korryn Gaines Family
8
CBS Baltimore. Korryn Gaines Wrongful Death Lawsuit Baltimore County Latest
9
Maryland General Assembly. Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section 5-303
10
Appellate Court of Maryland. Cunningham v. Baltimore County, No. 378
11
ACLU of Maryland. Justice for Korryn and Kodi Gaines
12
University of North Carolina School of Law. Cunningham Petition for Writ of Certiorari
13
Baltimore Sun. Korryn Gaines
14
The Guardian. Korryn Gaines Black Woman Killed by Police Son Injured
15
WYPR. Rev Al Sharpton Leads Protest Against Baltimore Countys Handling of Korryn Gaines Killing