Opinion ID: 159309
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Reprehensibility of Mr. Fox's Conduct

Text: 31 Reprehensibility is the most important guidepost for determining the reasonableness of a punitive damage award. See BMW, 517 U.S. at 575. [I]n assessing the reprehensibility of a defendant's conduct, we ask whether the conduct: 'causes economic harm rather than physical harm; would be considered unlawful in all states; involves repeated acts rather than a single one; is intentional; involves deliberate false statements rather than omissions; and is aimed at a vulnerable target.' Hamilton, 122 F.3d at 861 (quoting OXY, 101 F.3d at 638). 32 While Mr. Fox's conduct caused economic harm and was not directed at a particularly vulnerable target in United, the other factors tend to support the imposition of a large award. The jury found Mr. Fox committed fraud, an activity surely considered unlawful in every state. In addition, the evidence presented at trial conclusively showed Mr. Fox repeatedly made deliberate false statements to United, as well as the district court. After settling United's trademark infringement suit in 1991, Mr. Fox instructed his attorney to write a letter to United claiming all the Quick-Phos product had either been disposed of or relabeled with an appropriate mark, when in fact he had a significant inventory of product improperly labeled with the Quick-Phos mark. Despite evidence to the contrary, Mr. Fox maintained in a letter to United's attorney that Midland did not possess a single invoice showing the name Quick-Phos after January 25, 1992. In order to further conceal his fraudulent statements, Mr. Fox instructed a Midland employee to state the same information in an affidavit accompanying Midland's response to United's motion to set aside the 1991 settlement; Mr. Fox submitted falsified invoices to the court suggesting Midland had not sold mislabeled Quick-Phos product after May 22, 1992. All this in addition to his fraudulent activity in procuring the trademark registration and years of deliberately selling inferior aluminum phosphide under the Quick-Phos mark. We have no reservations about characterizing Mr. Fox's conduct as particularly reprehensible.