According to the NY Times, a Santa Monica jury has awarded $440,000 in punitive damages against a hotel and its owner for violations of California’s civil rights laws.  The jury had previously awarded $1.2 million in compensatory damages, as reported by the LA Times. 

The plaintiffs are 18 individuals who belonged to a group called the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.  They were holding a poolside event at the Hotel Shangri-La in 2010 when, according to their lawsuit, the owner of the hotel found out the nature of the event and ordered them to remove their literature and banners and get out of the pool.  The jury found the hotel liable for violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. The hotel’s chief business development officer (who is Jewish) says the hotel will appeal.

Hat tip: Prof. François-Xavier Licari.

Last year we reported on a $55 million punitive damages award against accounting firm BDO Seidman in Florida State Court.  That was one of the biggest punitive awards of 2011, although it didn’t make our top five.

Last week a judge in New York ruled that the $55 million award is not covered by insurance.  (Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’S v BDO Seidman LLP, 2012 NY Slip Op 51425(U).)  The ruling confirms that, despite the views of some commentators, defendants should not expect coverage for punitive damages awards.

We don’t see many cases involving punitive damages in medical malpractice cases, but the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a jury there has awarded $500,000 in punitive damages against a doctor who allegedly mismanaged the plaintiff’s treatment following knee surgery.  The jury also awarded $7 million in punitive damages against Breg Inc., the maker of a medical device (the Polar Care 500) that allegedly gave the plaintiff frostbite.  The compensatory damages award is $5.2 million. (Engler v. Chao, SDSC no. GIC870982.)

The article describes accusations of negligence against the doctor, but does not explain the plaintiffs’ theory for recovering punitive damages – there’s no discussion of how the plaintiff proved the defendants acted with malice, oppression, or fraud.   

The case seems to be getting more press than the usual civil lawsuit because the doctor involved happens to be the team physician for the San Diego Chargers.  As the story notes, the California Medical Board is seeking to revoke his license based on three alleged incidents of negligent care in unrelated cases.

Last year we blogged about the documentary “Hot Coffee,” which focuses on Liebeck v. McDonald’s and a few other cases to illustrate the evils of tort reform.  As noted in our prior post, the film’s director Susan Saladoff said she made the film as an antidote to what she perceives as a pro-defendant bias in the mainstream media’s treatment of tort reform.

In this video provided by Widener University School of Law, you can view a debate between Ms. Saladoff and Victor Schwartz, general counsel for the American Tort Reform Association.  The video has something for folks on both sides of the issue.  If you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll enjoy seeing Ms. Saladoff passionately explain why everyone should see this film, because it opens people’s eyes to the corporate takeover of the American justice system.  If you’re not a fan of the movie, you’ll enjoy seeing Mr. Schwartz identify all the parts of the film he believes are false or misleading.

Warning, this video was recorded via Skype and its a little garbled in places.  There are some moments when students are asking questions of Ms. Saladoff and Mr. Schwartz, but the questions are inaudible.  And the video begins in the middle of Ms. Saladoff’s comments.  Despite these technical glitches, I found the video quite interesting.

Hat tip: TortsProf Blog

Related posts:

“Hot Coffee” documentary takes aim at media depictions of civil litigation

Judge Rex Hesseman of the Los Angeles County Superior Court has an op-ed in the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal entitled “‘Finances’ and punitive damages.”  (Subscription required.)  Judge Heeseman, who writes regularly on punitive damages and insurance law, focuses this time on Bankhead v. Arvinmeritor.  Here’s his conclusion about the potential effects of the Court of Appeal’s decision to affirm a $4.5 million punitive damages award based on expert opinion that the defendant could pay such an award, notwithstanding its negative net worth:

It can be asserted that focusing upon finances is a sort of an “end run” around the aforementioned “guidelines” of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Furthermore, the emphasis by Bullock III and ArvinMeritor on the “specific facts of each case” (admittedly echoing comments in Campbell) may bring flexibility, but also uncertainty.  . . .  And, for the “punitive damages phase” in some lawsuits, is it now advisable (required?) to have your “expert witness” ready to testify about “net worth,” “financial condition” and/or “ability to pay”?  Will there be a “dueling of experts” in that context, similar to that in some other litigation (e.g. standard of care in medical malpractice)?

We hope the California Supreme Court will provide some guidance on these questions in the furture, but as we noted in our most recent post about Bankhead, the California Supreme Court declined to wade into this area of the law in the context of that case.

Related posts:

California Supreme Court denies review in Bankhead v. Arvinmeritor

Defendant files petition for review in Bankhead v. Arvinmeritor

Published opinion affirms $4.5M punitive damages award in asbestos case (Bankhead v. ArvinMeritor)  

The Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, cannot be liable for punitive damages so long as it remains under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.  So says an order issued by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  (Herron v. Fannie Mae, no. 1:10-CV-00943-RMC.)  
That’s consistent with the general rule that instrumentalities of the federal government are not subject to punitive damages.  (See, e.g., Woodland Production Credit Assn. v. Nicholas (1988) 201 Cal.App.3d 123, 129 [“[n]either the federal government nor its instrumentalities may be held liable for punitive damages unless there is an express statutory authorization for such an award”].)

Hat tip: The Blog of LegalTimes

A jury in Los Angeles has awarded $18 million in punitive damages in an asbestos personal injury case against Dow Chemical subsidiary Union Carbide, according to this press release from the plaintiff’s lawyers.  (Izell v. Union Carbide Corp., et al., LASC no. BC469931.)

The jury had previously awarded $30 million in compensatory damages, consisting entirely of non-economic damages (pain and suffering).  Because the jury allocated 60 percent to fault to Union Carbide, it will be responsible for $18 million in compensatory damages, resulting in a one to one ratio of punitive to compensatory damages.

By my count, this is the third largest punitive damages award of the year in California.

MSNBC.com is reporting that yesterday a jury in Oakland awarded $21 million in punitive damages, on top of a compensatory damages award of $7 million, to a woman who alleged she was sexually abused by a member of the Fremont congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  (Jane Doe v. The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, Alameda Superior Court no. HG11558324.)

Defense counsel says he is planning to appeal; he says he is not aware of any other case in which a religious organization was held liable for wrongdoing committed by a church member who was not in an an official position of responsibility.

Update:  Here is a link to the Court of Appeal online docket.  Some documents in the case have been posted here.

BusinessWeek reports that a jury in federal district court in Illinois has awarded $81 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages against ConAgra Foods, Inc.  The case involves an explosion in a grain elevator in 2010 that left three workers severely injured. Interestingly, ConAgra says the entire amount is covered by insurance.  I suspect their insurers may disagree.  I don’t know what law is being applied in this particular case but in most states, including California, punitive damages are not insurable (notwithstanding some arguments to the contrary).

As far as we can tell, the $200 million punitive damages award against Allergan in Virginia was the 4th biggest punitive damages award of 2011.  The Orange County Register reports that Allergan has won a new trial in that case.  According to the article, Judge Robert E. Payne of the Eastern District of  Virginia ruled that the jury should have been told that Allergan could not add a so-called “black box” warning to its Botox package inserts wtihout prior approval from the FDA.