Opinion ID: 1232156
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the amount of the punitive damages award

Text: We evaluate an award of punitive damages in light of a non-exhaustive list of factors set out in Ace Truck v. Kahn, 103 Nev. 503, 746 P.2d 132 (1987). Two factors included in this list are the culpability and the financial position of the tortfeasor. Id. at 510, 746 P.2d at 137. Amoroso asserts that its net worth is $3,000,000, and therfore this judgment will cut its assets by almost two-thirds. In Ace Truck, two tortfeasors made false representations upon the sale of their business to the plaintiffs. Each defendant's net worth was $1,626,000 and $705,700, and the punitive damage awards were $500,000 and $300,000, respectively. Although we sustained the jury's finding of fraud, we opined that the degree of culpability was not extravagant. Id. at 511, 746 P.2d at 137. Therefore, we cut each punitive damage award in half. The fraud alleged in Ace Truck is similar to the fraud alleged here. In both cases, the defendants made false business representations to procure a more beneficial contract for themselves. Also in both cases, the punitive damage awards equalled approximately one-third of the defendant's net worth. Therefore, we conclude that the punitive damages awarded in this case should be cut in half, from $1,000,000 down to $500,000. Punitive damages are intended to punish, not to destroy. We thereby reduce the award in this case to achieve a result consistent with that objective. MOWBRAY, C.J., and SPRINGER, STEFFEN and YOUNG, JJ., concur.