This isn’t exactly breaking news.  HarrisMartin (subscription required) reported this story on December 18, but we’ve been a little backlogged around here so we’re just getting around to blogging about it.

A jury in Los Angeles has awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $3.6 million in punitive damages against Crown, Cork & Seal Company Inc., a manufacturer of asbestos-containing pipe insulation.  This represents a significantly better result for the plaintiffs than the first trial in this case, which ended in a defense verdict. That first judgment was reversed in a published opinion, however, because the Court of Appeal determined that the trial court had wrongly excluded the “consumer expectations” theory of product defect from the case.   
   
Disclaimer: Horvitz & Levy LLP is involved in this litigation, representing a different defendant in a related appeal arising out of the first trial.

The American Tort Reform Foundation has once again listed California at the top of its Judicial Hellhole rankings.  The report mentions, among other things, the $11 million punitive damages award in the Grigg v. Owens-Illinois case, which we discussed here.  That certainly wasn’t the largest award of the year, but it made the report because of some surprising rulings by the trial court.  Among other things, the articles says that the trial judge determined in posttial proceedings that that the punitive damages claim never should have gone to the jury, but she nonetheless refused to vacate the award.

Related posts:

Oakland jury awards $11M in punitive damages against Owens-Illinois

The December 2013 edition of Wilson Elser’s Product Liability Newsletter discusses the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s decision in Aleo v. SLB Toys, which affirmed an $18 million punitive damages award.  The newsletter notes that Massachusetts is one of only eight states that permit punitive damages based on gross negligence, and is the only one of those eight that has not restricted, by statute or judicial decision, the circumstances in which gross negligence can support punitive damages. 

Related posts:

Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds $18 million punitive damages award (Aleo v. Toys R Us)

Today’s Daily Journal has an article (subscription required) by Judge Rex Heeseman of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.  Judge Heeseman was written several editorials on the topic of punitive damages.  In this one, he discusses some of the published California decisions on punitive damages, including Nickerson, Davis, and Nevarrez.  He concludes that none of these cases can be described as “blockbusters.” I tend to agree, although I think there’s a chance the California Supreme Court may take an interest in Nevarrez.

You can read our posts on those opinions at the links below.

Related posts:

Court of Appeal reissues opinion approving jury instruction on clear and convincing evidence (Nevarrez v. San Marino Skilled Nursing)

Court of Appeal orders reduction of $19M punitive damages award to $350,000 (Nickerson v. Stonebridge) – PART II

Court of Appeal orders reduction of $19M punitive damages award to $350,000 (Nickerson v. Stonebridge) – PART I

Court of Appeal reverses order granting summary adjudication of punitive damages in harassment case (Davis v. Kiewit)

The LA Times reports that yesterday a jury in Oklahoma awarded $3 million in compensatory damages against Toyota in a “sudden acceleration” case.  The jury also found that Toyota acted with “reckless disregard,” the prerequisite for awarding punitive damages under Oklahoma law. 

NJ.com reports that members of the Wilf family, who own the Minnesota Vikings, have been ordered to pay $84.5 million, including $36.8 million in punitive damages, for cheating their business partners out of revenue from an apartment complex.  A copy of the judge’s order appears at this link.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued this opinion today, affirming a $2.6 million compensatory damages award and a $18 million punitive damages award in a products liability case against Toys R Us. The plaintiff claimed that Toys R Us sold a defective inflatable pool slide that collapsed and severely injured the 29-year-old plaintiff. 

The Supreme Court rejected the defendant’s argument that the punitive damages were grossly excessive.  The court said that although the defendant’s conduct was “only grossly negligent, rather than malicious or willful,” it was still sufficiently reprehensible to support an $18 million punitive damages award.  In California, by contrast, gross negligence alone is not sufficient to support any award of punitive damages. (See, e.g., Flyer’s Body Shop v. Ticor Title Ins.)

This verdict happened last month but we neglected to report it at the time.  HarrisMartin reported (subscription required) that an L.A. jury awarded $6.5 million in compensatory damages and $32.5 million in punitive damages.  The plaintiffs are the family of a former General Motors employee who died from mesothelioma.  The defendant, BorgWarner, manufactured asbestos-containing clutches.  We’ll keep an eye on this one as it proceeds to posttrial motions and appeal.    

Believe it or not, yesterday’s post on Nickerson was our 1,000th post! 

When we started up in 2008, we wondered whether we could find enough material to maintain a blog on such a narrowly focused topic.  That hasn’t been a problem, as it turns out. 

Even more surprisingly, about 400 of you have subscribed to this blog by email, Twitter, or RSS feed.  That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the big boys of legal blogging (no one will mistake us for Above the Law), but it’s good enough to place us well within the top 100 most popular legal blogs, according to Avvo. 

So thanks to all of you for coming along for the ride  Maybe in another five years we’ll be blogging about post #2000.

The SunSentinel reports that a Florida jury has awarded $37.5 million, including $22.5 million in punitive damages, to the family of a smoker in a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds.

This is the latest verdict in the on-going series of post-Engle tobacco trials in Florida.  The results have been a mixed bag – some defense verdicts, and some plaintiffs’ verdicts, large and small.  I suppose RJR should be thankful they didn’t get this jury.

Related posts:

Florida appellate court reverses $79 million judgment in tobacco case
 
Florida appellate court reverses $40 million punitive damages award in tobacco case

Philip Morris wins sixth straight trial in Florida smoker litigation

Florida jury awards relatively modest punitive damages in smoker lawsuit

Another punitive damages award in Florida tobacco litigation

Florida jury awards $20 million in punitive damages to smoker’s widow

Smoker’s widow wins $12.5 million in punitive damages

Florida trial judge cuts $244 million punitive damages award

Florida jury awards $25 million in punitive damages to smoker’s widow

“Smokers, tobacco, both winners in early Engle cases”

Jury rules for plaintiff in first phase of retrial after reversal of $145 billion punitive damages award

After reversal of $145 billion class action punitive damages award, Florida smokers seek punitive damages in individual suits