Opinion ID: 2566656
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: attorney fees, excess verdict, and special damages

Text: ¶ 47 Finally, we turn to the Campbells' claim that costs and attorney fees incurred in this action, as well as the excess portion of the verdict not covered by insurance, should be included as part of the denominator in calculating a ratio between compensatory and punitive damages. We disagree. ¶ 48 We believe that fairly read, the Supreme Court's opinion forecloses consideration of a compensatory damages number other than the $1,000,000 awarded by the jury. The Supreme Court's analysis of the reasonableness and proportionality of the punitive damages award was grounded in its conviction that there is a presumption against an award that has a 145-to-1 ratio. Campbell II, 538 U.S. at 426, 123 S.Ct. 1513. While that analysis may not have been different had the denominator been $1,939,518.10 (the amount of the compensatory damages, special damages, excess verdict, and attorney fees combined), and the ratio thereby reduced to 75-to-1, the considerable attention given by the Supreme Court to the issue of compensatory damages and the methodology for arriving at a constitutionally permissible ratio of compensatory to punitive damages convinces us that we would not be at liberty to consider a substitute denominator. We do, however, include the award of special damages as part of our punitive damages award as both parties agree it is part of the overall damages assessment. ¶ 49 To consider attorney fees and expenses in awarding punitive damages also invites unnecessary conceptual and practical complications to an already complex enterprise. In almost every case, including this one, the attorney fees and expense damage component would require its own independent reprehensibility assessment using the Gore standards. The manner in which a defendant conducts litigation bears a rational relationship to the conduct giving rise to the claim for punitive damages and would inevitably lead to an unseemly and time-consuming appendage to the trial. ¶ 50 The incorporation of attorney fees and expenses into the compensatory damages award would substantially alter the manner in which trials are conducted in this state. Under our general practice, the issues of whether attorney fees are available to a party and the reasonableness of the requested fees are reserved for determination by the judge after the conclusion of the trial or other proceedings. Meadowbrook, LLC v. Flower, 959 P.2d 115, 117-18 (Utah 1998). We have little doubt that the interests of justice would be subverted by sidetracking the focus of a trial away from the central claims of the parties and onto issues relating to attorney fees and expenses. Id.