Opinion ID: 895240
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Exemplary-Damages Award Violated Due Process

Text: Our settled practice is not to remit unconstitutional awards ourselves or to prescribe a required ratio, though on this record, even 4:1 seems a stretch: Pushing exemplary damages to the absolute constitutional limit in a case like this leaves no room for greater punishment in cases involving death, grievous physical injury, financial ruin, or actions that endanger a large segment of the public. [89] The award in this case cannot be squared with our on-point Gullo Motors decision, another scheme of deception case. The Supreme Court is decidedly hands-on when scrutinizing high-dollar exemplary-damages awards, and we are confident the Court would conclude this award was neither reasonable nor proportionate to the wrong committed, and it was an irrational and arbitrary deprivation of the property of the defendant. [90]