Helium is featuring a series of short essays debating the merits of unlimited punitive damage awards. Currently, the site contains four essays in favor of unlimited awards and four essays opposing unlimited awards. Visitors to the site can cast their vote.
What is Helium, you ask? The site bills itself as “a community of writers who are revolutionizing publishing.” It is not “a blog or a collection of edited encyclopedic listings.”
The Albuquerque Journal reports that a jury has awarded $33 million in punitive damages in an abuse-of-process lawsuit by one attorney against another. The jury awarded $165,000 in compensatory damages, which makes for a ratio of exactly 200 to 1. The losing party says he plans to appeal. I hope the winner isn’t making plans to spend the $33 million quite yet.
Hat tip to Howard Bashman.
UPDATE (By Jeremy Rosen on 2/7/08 at 3:45 pm): On the other hand, the plaintiff may take comfort in the fact that the New Mexico appellate courts have been named as “dishonorable mention judicial hellholes” by ATRA.
Laura Ernde, the California Supreme Court reporter for the Daily Journal, reports on the City of Hope v. Genentech oral argument in the California Supreme Court here [subscription required]. Unlike this article, which states that the justices asked tough questions “without tipping their hands about who would prevail,” Ernde’s article states that the Supreme Court “appeared sympathetic to [Genentech]’s arguments why it should get out of paying part of a $500 million jury verdict.”
Earlier posts on City of Hope v. Genentech appear here, here, and here.
In this political year, illegal immigration has been a hot topic. In some cases debates over the immigration issue have intersected with punitive damages issues. In Arizona, voters passed an initiative in 2006 that prohibits illegal aliens from being able to receive punitive damages in any lawsuit they bring. In Iowa, a proposed new law would call for employers who continue to hire illegal aliens as employees to be subject to punitive damages in addition to other civil fines.
The Supreme Court will consider the petition for certiorari in Philip Morris USA, Inc. v. Accord at next week’s conference. The issue presented is whether, under the Due Process Clause, defendants’ liability for punitive damages in a mass tort trial may be adjudicated prior to a finding of compensatory liability.
The cert. petition is available on SCOTUSblog here, along with the brief in opposition, the petitioner’s reply, and amicus briefs by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Ciba corporation.
SCOTUSblog flags this petition as one of several that have a reasonable chance of being granted.
This is a recurring issue in California mass tort litigation. In addition to the due process issues raised in this cert petition, California law adds a further wrinkle: Civil Code section 3295 requires that punitive damages issues be tried “by the same trier of fact that found for the plaintiff,” which seems to preclude trial of punitive damages before liability issues.
This article discusses a new American Medical Association study, which “proves that capping punitive damages in medical malpractice cases both reduces doctors’ malpractice insurance premiums and increases the number of physicians available to care for patients.” According to the article, the AMA claims that placing a $250,000 cap on punitive damages in states that don’t have effective reforms in place could reduce medical malpractice premiums by $1.4 billion nationwide.
The author of the article may have misinterpreted this AMA press release, issued yesterday. The press release discusses a study about the impact of caps on noneconomic damages, not punitive damages. (As most readers of this blog probably know, California has a cap of $250,000 on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, but no statutory cap on punitive damages.)
Yesterday, in Scarborough v. Dillard’s Inc., the North Carolina Court of Appeals reinstated a $77,000 punitive damages award in a malicious prosecution case, addressing a procedural issue that has split California courts.
The trial court had found insufficient evidence supported the award. The majority opinion disagreed, taking the position that the punitive damages should be reinstated if a scintilla of evidence existed to support the award. A dissenting opinion argued that the majority failed to take into account the requirement, under North Carolina law, that punitive damages are available only if the plaintiff proves the prerequisites for punitive damages by clear and convincing evidence. Given that higher burden of proof, the dissent would have affirmed the trial court’s order granting JNOV.
From a California lawyer’s perspective, this opinion is interesting because California’s appellate courts have split on the same issue. California law also requires proof by clear and convincing evidence for punitive damages issues. Some appellate courts have held that the clear and convincing evidence standard must be taken into account on appeal, but others have disagreed. The California Supreme Court has issued conflicting opinions on this issue. Eventually the Supreme Court will need to revisit the issue and sort out this mess.
Hat tip to Sean Andrussier at North Carolina Appellate Blog.
UPDATE (By Jeremy Rosen on 2/6/2008 at 11:37 am): North Carolina is one of the many states which by statute have set limits on punitive damages. North Carolina law limits punitive damages to three times compensatory damages or $250,000, whichever is greater. (Exception is for harm caused by driving while impaired.)
Mike McKee at the Recorder has this article [subs. req.] on Law.com today regarding yesterday’s California Supreme Court argument in City of Hope v. Genentech. Our earlier posts about the argument are here and here.
The February 2008 edition of the ABA Journal has this article on the Exxon Valdez case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The article focuses on the maritime law aspects of the case, but quotes Robin Conrad of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the proposition that the case presents an issue of fairness that transcends maritime law: “While the Due Process Clause is not an issue before the court per se, the question of fundamental fairness is front and center.”
Today’s California Supreme Court oral argument in City of Hope v. Genentech, which we blogged about yesterday, focused entirely on liability issues. The argument did not get into whether the $200 million punitive damages award was excessive in violation of the Due Process Clause, although the excessiveness issue was covered in the briefs. The Supreme Court’s opinion is due by May 5, 2008.