Opinion ID: 1811971
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Profitability factor.

Text: The parties dispute the relevance of evidence of a defendant's general financial status, or net worth, to the profitability factor. In Green Oil, this Court said: `If the wrongful conduct was profitable to the defendant, the punitive damages should remove the profit and should be in excess of the profit, so that the defendant recognizes a loss.' 539 So.2d at 223 (quoting Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Lavoie, 505 So.2d 1050, 1062 (Houston, J., concurring specially)). Blizard contends that the financial information he seeks in the requests is relevant to enable the trial court to determine whether the punitive-damages award exceeds the profit Vulcan realized from its wrongful conduct. However, according to Vulcan: While there may be circumstances where certain financial information could be relevant to [the profitability] factor, Blizard's notion that he can obtain sweeping discovery into all aspects of Vulcan's finances to advance his arguments with regard to that factor cannot be right. The key is that the factor seeks to remove the profit arising from the alleged conduct for which punitive damages are being imposed, not any profit generally.  Reply brief, at 9 (emphasis added). We agree with Vulcan. The profitability factor speaks to the particular conduct that occasioned the imposition of punitive damages. Evidence of Vulcan's general financial status is far too attenuated for useful analysis under the profitability factor. In that connection, Vulcan did not object to Blizard's request for the production of documents ostensibly relevant to the specific circumstances at issue. In particular, Blizard sought in request no. 32, and Vulcan expressly agreed to produce, [a]ny and all documents, items or things which reflect Vulcan's profit per ton of rock sold from the Scottsboro quarry for the past ten (10) years. However, Blizard's requests no. 8 and nos. 11-14 are not directed to, and do not reference, profit from the conduct underlying this litigation. Therefore, production of those documents would add little, or nothing, of value to a profitability analysis beyond what Vulcan has agreed to produce. [3] For these reasons, we conclude that the trial court exceeded its discretion in denying Vulcan's motion for a protective order as to the financial information sought in requests no. 8 and nos. 11-14. Thus, we grant Vulcan's petition insofar as it is directed to that portion of the request.