A jury ruled today that a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge obtained a property next to his law office by fraud, and said he had to pay $180,000 in punitive damages.

The judge, Willis W. Berry Jr., 67, obtained the property on North Girard Avenue while handling a civil suit for Denise Jackson, 57, in the 1990s.

Berry referred comment to his attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, who said he would appeal both the verdict and the award.

Today's Common Pleas Court verdict was not the first controversy to involve Berry.

A state disciplinary tribunal had ruled that Berry broke the law by running a real-estate business out of his court office for more than a decade. The state Court of Judicial Discipline also suspended him for four months, ending Dec. 16.

In July, the Philadelphia Bar Association called on him to resign, saying his presence on the bench undermines public confidence in the criminal-justice system.

The incident involving Jackson dates to before Berry being elected to the court in 1995.

Jackson filed the lawsuit after after being interviewed in 2007 about the property transaction by Inquirer reporter Nancy Phillips. Phillips has written several articles about Berry's real estate holdings. Some of those properties had serious city code violations.

Jackson testified that she never knew she had briefly owned the lot until Phillips showed her copies of deeds and papers with her signature.

In her lawsuit, Jackson claimed Berry was representing her in a 1993 slip and fall case when he cheated her by getting her to sign over to him the vacant lot measuring 7,350 square feet at 1533 W. Girard Ave. in return for $1,500.

The jury of six women and two men ruled that the statute of limitations, typically two years, only started to run when Jackson was interviewed by Phillips.

The $180,000 figure was the current value placed on the lot during the trial, said Jackson's attorney, Barry S. Yaches. The jury also awarded Jackson $9,858.72 in compensatory damages.

Jackson had hired Berry to sue the lot's owners after her injury. As a settlement, Jackson was awarded the lot, which was later transferred to a corporation partially controlled by Berry.

Jackson said that while her signature was on the various transaction documents, she never realized what she had signed and was misled by Berry.

Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles B. Smith, who was brought in from outside Philadelphia to hear the case, expressed surprise at the verdict after the jury had been dismissed.

"I am, of course, shocked, like most of you are," he said from the bench.

Smith did not explain his comment, but earlier in the trial he said he was considering dismissing Jackson's suit, on a motion by Stretton, because there was insufficient evidence to send the case to the jury.

Jackson herself said she was taken off-guard by her victory.

"Its a surprise to me that they would rule in my favor, considering . . . that my signature was on so many" documents connected to the property, she said.

Jackson has testified that Berry tricked her into transferring the land.

"I see my signatures, but I don't remember signing the papers . . . I wasn't given the papers to read, I was given them to sign," Jackson said from the witness stand in June. That trial ended in a mistrial.

Berry, who denies any wrongdoing, disputed Jackson at both trials.

He testified in June that the property had been saddled with liens and back taxes, and that he paid to have the property cleaned and filled. "I thought I was being fair, and they thought I was being fair," Berry said.

"They wanted to sell it, I wanted to buy it. We had an agreement, a meeting of the minds," Berry testified. Jackson, Berry said, told him she did not want the property for three reasons: She didn't want to run the risk of losing her welfare checks, she was not in a position to clean up the property, and she could not afford the back taxes.

Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-2797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.