Opinion ID: 2516780
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Association's and Merculief's behavior upon discovery of their conduct warrants a large punitive damages award.

Text: As to the fourth and fifth factors, while the short duration of the appellants' conduct does not weigh in favor of great punitive damages, their attitude and conduct toward Anderson upon her report of their misconduct does. Merculief's response to Anderson's concerns about his misconduct was to deny the misconduct or to blame Anderson for his own misappropriations. In addition, there is evidence that after it became apparent that Merculief had misappropriated money from the Association, he resisted attempts to collect past overpayments made to him and continued to engage in financial improprieties. Merculief eventually resigned from his presidency after repeated pressure to halt his misappropriations. The board, meanwhile, seemed to do its best to avoid dealing with Anderson's concerns about Merculief. When the board did commission an audit to investigate, it designed the audit to be as narrow as possible and failed to address broader issues of potential financial misdealing identified by Anderson as areas of concern. Further, the evidence indicates that the board's behavior toward Anderson did not change after it discovered that Anderson's concerns about Merculief were well-founded. Even during trial, a board member continued to blame her for being disloyal and falsely accusing Merculief. This board member continued to assert that Merculief had done nothing wrong. Although the board did attempt to collect from Merculief the amounts that he had misappropriated, it did not follow through with these attempts. In fact, it voted to indemnify Merculief for the punitive damages awarded against him. These behaviors indicate an individual and an organization unwilling to admit the misconduct they engaged in or the harm they inflicted upon their employee.