Obtained a punitive damage award ($ 350,000) which is still the highest
punitive award against an insurer upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal (Plester vs. Wawanesa)
Plaintiff's counsel may attempt to rely on this case to suggest that a
higher punitive award is more appropriate in these circumstances, while defence counsel may object to this characterization.
``... it is desirable as a matter of policy that the courts should be able to
make punitive awards against those who are vicariously liable for the conduct of their subordinates without being constrained by the financial means of those who committed the wrongful acts in question.
This is the «bedbug» case written by Judge Posner; affirming $ 5,000 actual and $ 186,000
punitive awards per plaintiff, following the language from Campbell and Gore.
While this is evidently poor drafting, I had always taken it to mean that fatal accident actions were exclusively about compensating dependent loss and not at all about punishing, deterring or denouncing defendant misbehavior; in other words, that the statutory provision as given could never
sustain punitive awards.
This was set at $ 500,000 — an amount five times more than the last
major punitive award given to Wal - Mart in a wrongful dismissal case (that of Boucher v. Wal - Mart Canada Corp, 2014 ONCA 419).
After Boucher,
such punitive awards may not be grossly excessive or irrational where the conduct is egregious and compensatory damages are modest.
The Ninth Circuit recently issued an unpublished memorandum opinion reducing a $ 2.5 million
punitive award against GEICO to $ 1,064,282.44 — four times the compensatory damages — in a Montana insurance bad - faith case.
However, it is crucial to distinguish the two cases in that
the punitive award that was lowered to $ 10,000.00 was an award against an individual, not the corporation, and that the award against Wal - Mart was initially ten times higher than the award provided for in Gordon v. Altus.
No matter how egregious the insurance company's conduct is towards the accident victim and how deserving they are of
a punitive award for this bad faith, the accident victim can not choose to go to the Superior Court.
The amount a Tribunal will award for unfair dismissal will depend almost entirely on the employee's salary and benefits at the date they were dismissed and how quickly an employee is able to obtain alternative comparable employment, as a Tribunal will compensate the individual for their loss rather than making
any punitive award against the employer.
Punitive awards are typically given out when the defendant was intentionally reckless and seemed to act with malice.
There are very limited circumstances under which a victim may successfully recover
a punitive award.
If victims claim punitive damages, the jury will consider factors including the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's actions, the disparity between
the punitive award and the actual harm, and the amount of sanctions usually imposed for similar actions.
The trial court reduced
the punitive award to $ 1.7 million.
The existing tools to deal with SLAPPs include motions for summary judgment, the defence of Responsible Communication and
a punitive award of costs.
Using Littlefield as a benchmark, the court reduced both the compensatory and
punitive awards to $ 50,000.
The court also addressed punitive damages, stating that to warrant
a punitive award, the defendant's conduct must have been wantonly reckless or malicious.