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

The Oregonian reports that on Friday a federal jury in Oregon awarded $18.4 million in punitive damages and $180,000 compensatory damages to a woman who spent two years unsuccessfully trying to get Equifax Information Services to fix major mistakes on her credit report. 

That’s a ratio of about 102 to 1 between the punitive damages and the compensatory damages.  The Oregonian predicts that an appeal is likely.  Even more likely, the defendant will file posttrial motions asking the district court to reduce or vacate the award.

The Ledger of Lakeland County is reporting that a jury in Polk County Florida has awarded $220 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages against two defendants, Trans Healthcare Inc. and Trans Healthcare Management, in a case alleging negligent care at a nursing home owned by the defendants. 

The story says the trial was limited to damages because the court entered a default against the defendants when they stopped participating in the lawsuit.  They did participate in the damages trial, but their defense was apparently not very persuasive to this jury (to put it mildly). 

The story also reports that the same defendants got hit with a $114 million verdict in another case in 2010, and that the plaintiffs in that case are still trying to collect.  The plaintiffs in this case are not likely to fare any better, but at least their lawyers can tout their $1 billion victory. 

The ABA Journal is starting to compile its annual list of the top 100 legal blogs, and is inviting “blog amici” to submit nominations for their favorite blogs. Please consider putting in a good word for Cal Punitives or our sister blog, At the Lectern.

The LA Times is reporting that yesterday a jury in Orange County awarded $1 million in punitive damages against Dan Harkey and his real estate lending company, Point Center Financial, based on allegations that Harkey maliciously breached his fiduciary duties to investors by making ill-advised loans and pocketing fees and commissions from those loans.  The total verdict is $10 million, counting the jury’s prior award of $9 million in compensatory damages.

The case has generated a lot of publicity because Harkey is the husband of Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, who was initially named as a defendant but later dismissed.

If you have been using Google Reader to follow this blog and have just discovered that Google Reader is no more, you may be interested in this piece from Slate: How to Survive the Google Reader Apocalypse.

Last Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court issued this opinion (Ackelson v. Manley Toy Direct), reaffirming the court’s earlier ruling that punitive damages are not available in sexual harassment and gender discrimination cases brought under the Iowa Civil Rights Act: 

We have clearly and repeatedly stated our conclusion that the ICRA does not implicitly permit an award of punitive damages. This message has been a reoccurring pronouncement over the last twenty-seven years. No significant legislative changes have been made since our first pronouncement in 1986 that would even hint at a shift in legislative intent since that time.

During this same period, the issue of punitive damages in civil rights claims has received broad national attention, making it very likely that our legislature would have taken action to alter our interpretation if it disapproved.  . . . Overall, we think our legislature would be quite surprised to learn if we decided to reverse course and take a different position under the guise of statutory interpretation. We did our job twenty-seven years ago and will leave it for the legislature to take any different approach.

That excerpt certainly creates the impression that this issue has been settled in Iowa for quite some time (twenty-seven years, to be precise).  Apparently, however, Iowa’s trial courts had not gotten that message.  This Associated Press story in the Globe Gazette reports that “trial judges had been allowing punitive damages in civil rights cases,” according to a local plaintiffs’ attorney.  Presumably that will change now.

The Boston Herald reports that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has reversed an $81 million punitive damages award given to the family of a smoker in a lawsuit against Lorillard Tobacco Co. 

In a unanimous opinion, the court ruled that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on the issues of negligent design and marketing, and that those erroneous instructions may have tainted the punitive damages award.  The court ordered a new trial on punitive damages, but affirmed the jury’s $35 million compensatory damages award, which was supported by alternate theories of liability not impacted by the erroneous instructions.