The plaintiff who won a jury award for $137 million against Tesla has decided to take the case back to trial, rather than accepting the trial court’s reduction of the damages to a total of $15 million ($13.5 million in punitive damages and $1.5 million in compensatory damages). Law360 has the story (subscription required).
It’s rare for a plaintiff to reject a remittitur that still provides such a large recovery. For this gamble to pay off, the plaintiff and his lawyers need to try the case again, win a verdict in excess of $15 million, and then defend that award against another set of post-trial motions and possibly an appeal. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.