In so doing, the case provides a valuable primer
on punitive damage awards; one worthy of every personal injury practitioner's reading.
A court may impose a significantly higher
punitive damage award if it is found that the employer followed a policy or practice of attempting to exploit vulnerable employees.
These cases involve egregious acts of negligence and misconduct; therefore, our attorneys can also push for maximum compensation by
obtaining punitive damage awards.
And while the law should strongly
encourage punitive damage awards in appropriate cases, judges should ultimately retain the discretion to award punitive damages.
Information reported includes the type of case, types of plaintiffs and defendants, trial winners, amount of total damages awarded, amount
of punitive damages awarded, and case processing time.
With this decison, the Ontario Court of Appeal specifically acknowledged the appropriateness of
punitive damages awards against employers who discriminate, harass or fail to accommodate disabled employees.
[111] The quantum of
punitive damages awarded by this jury, however, is another matter entirely, and it is appropriate to comment on this for the benefit of the parties and the judge at the new trial.
However, the surety company is liable only for damages awarded under division (A)(2) of section 4712.10 of the Revised Code and not for
punitive damages awarded under division (A)(3) of section 4712.10 of the Revised Code.
For these reasons, we hold that Oregon's denial of judicial review of the size of
punitive damages awards violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.1 o
In 2012 two juries awarded dismissed employees with
significant punitive damage awards.8 In 2012 a jury of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Higginson v Babine Forest Products Ltd. and Hampton Lumber Mills Inc. 9 ordered the two defendant employers to pay $ 573,000.00 in punitive damages.
The type of employer conduct that has repeatedly
attracted punitive damage awards in employment law cases often includes one or more of the following types of misconduct:
While still far below the multi-million dollar awards in the United States, there are now several decisions of the Ontario Court of Appeal and British Columbia Court of Appeal where the employee has been awarded six -
figure punitive damage awards for particularly egregious acts of the employer.
The
average punitive damages award among cases in which punitive damages were awarded was somewhat lower in 2003 - 13 ($ 14,002) than in 1973 - 83 ($ 17,376), despite the fact that total damages awards were much higher in the later period.
Further, «conduct
meriting punitive damages awards must be «harsh, vindictive, reprehensible and malicious», as well as «extreme in its nature and such that by any reasonable standard it is deserving of full condemnation and punishment»: Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays, 2008 SCC 39 at para. 68.
The settlement has been called a good deal for the drug company which will avoid the threat of further litigation and
potentially punitive damages awarded to litigants who claim Actos use is linked to the development and spread of cancer.
$ 40 million
punitive damages award reversed because trial court improperly usurped jury's role in determining facts regarding managing agent's ratification of tortious conduct
When a defendant's misconduct kills or injures a poor person — i.e., someone whose death or injury triggers smaller payouts in compensatory damages under conventional valuation models — such misconduct will yield a
lower punitive damages award where there is a requirement that punitive damages be based on compensatory damages than if the defendant killed or injured a wealthy per - son.
Co., 310 Ore. 206, 210 - 214, 797 P. 2d 1019, 1021 - 1023 (1990)(setting aside
punitive damage award because it was prejudicial error to instruct jury that a portion of any award would be used to pay plaintiff's attorney's fees and that another portion would go to State's common injury fund).
A manufacturer of products containing asbestos, ruled the Texas Supreme Court, could be held liable for punitive damages based on wrongful conduct, even if it had previously paid
other punitive damage awards in other cases based on the same conduct.
If, however, in some future case, a plea is plausibly made that a
particular punitive damage award is not merely excessive, but «so «grossly excessive» as to violate the Federal Constitution,» TXO, 509 U. S., at 458, n. 24, and Oregon's judiciary nevertheless insists that it is powerless to consider the plea, this Court might have cause to grant review.
The State's courts have shown no reluctance to
strike punitive damage awards in cases where punitive liability is not established, so that defendant qualifies for judgment on that issue as a matter of law.
Last year also saw another Canadian first in Airbus Helicopter v. Bell Helicopter, which awarded Airbus $ 1 million in punitive damages based on the gross misconduct of the defendant Bell: the
only punitive damages award for patent infringement in Canadian history.
In reducing the
original punitive damages award, the Court of Appeal balanced the legitimate objective of «punishing» the employer against a requirement of proportionality based on the specific facts of the case.
Extreme punitive damages awards are typically the product of a particular jury deciding to bring the hammer down on a particular tortfeasor it does not like (for good or bad reasons).
Represent EPL insurer in coverage proceedings concerning insurability of large
punitive damages award entered against employer charged with sexual harassment and retaliation under statutory public policy prohibition against insuring deliberate wrongdoing, in Massachusetts.