Opinion ID: 835320
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Standard of Post-Verdict Judicial Review

Text: Having established the foregoing general standards for assessing punitive damages awards and the maximum award that due process will allow in given circumstances, we turn to still another preliminary question: What is the proper standard for post-verdict judicial review of a punitive damages award? On balance, and based on our review of the cases, we conclude that the proper methodology for performing a review for gross excessiveness is the one used by the Court of Appeals in its opinion in this case. See Goddard, 202 Or.App. at 112, 120 P.3d 1260 (describing that process). First, to determine whether there is a factual predicate for a punitive damages award, the court reviews the evidence in the record that is relevant to such an award in the light most favorable to the party who won the award. [5] Second, the court applies the constitutionally prescribed guideposts to those predicate facts to determine if, as a matter of law, the award is grossly excessive. If the court determines that the award is grossly excessive, it then uses the same guideposts to determine the highest lawful amount of punitive damages that a rational juror could award, consistent with the Due Process Clause, i.e., it reviews for gross excessiveness. Of course, in applying that standard, the reviewing court must in some sense reexamine the evidence in the record  not to redecide the historical facts as decided by the jury, but to decide where, for purposes of the Gore guideposts, the conduct at issue falls on the scale of conduct that does or might warrant imposition of punitive damages.