Opinion ID: 461445
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The punitive damages award against J.D. Hudson.

Text: 56 However, we affirm the district court's decision to grant a judgment notwithstanding the verdict in one respect, the punitive damages award against J.D. Hudson. Generally, before an award of punitive damages is authorized in a civil rights action the jury must find, and the evidence must support its decision, that the defendant was motivated by an evil motive or intent, or there must be reckless or callous indifference to federally protected rights. Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 103 S.Ct. 1625, 75 L.Ed.2d 632 (1983). Consistent with Smith v. Wade, the district court instructed the jury: 57 The function of [punitive damages] is to punish the defendants for malicious or grossly wrong [conduct] and to deter similar [conduct] by others. Whether you decide to award punitive damages should be based upon whether or not you find that the defendants have been willful or malicious in their violation of plaintiff's constitutional rights, or that their acts were intentional in gross disregard of his constitutional rights. 58 (TR VII at 462). 59 The evidence offered by plaintiffs in this case does not support an award of punitive damages. There was no evidence that Director Hudson had an evil motive to infringe upon Mr. Anderson's constitutional right to life or that his actions were so egregious as to constitute reckless or callous indifference. Therefore, the award of punitive damages cannot stand. 60 B. The District Court's Decision to Grant a New Trial. 61 In the district court's order he stated that in the event that the Eleventh Circuit did not agree with his decision to grant a judgment notwithstanding the verdict he would grant defendant's motion for a new trial because he believed that the verdict was based principally on adverse reaction by the jury to the defendant Hudson's impatient and defensive demeanor while on the stand rather than to the substance of his testimony or any other evidence of record--in other words, that he antagonized the jury. 15 62 J.D. Hudson was not only a witness but a defendant. He was called as a witness by plaintiff for the purpose of cross-examination in order to make out plaintiff's case. In any case of this nature, many of the witnesses that a plaintiff will have to use will necessarily be correctional officers and supervisory personnel, as was Director Hudson. Thus the jury must pay close attention to the witnesses and judge them not only by their responses to the questions but by their demeanor, credibility, appearance, etc. Furthermore, in this case the judge specifically instructed the jury to that effect: 63 You may be guided by the appearance and the conduct of the witness, the manner in which the witness testifies, the character of the testimony given or by evidence to the contrary. You should carefully scrutinize all the testimony given as I have said and consider each witness's intelligence, motive, state of mind, demeanor and manner while on the stand. Consider also any relation each witness may bear to either of the side[s] of the case, the manner which each witness may be affected by the verdict, and the extent to which, if at all, he is either supported or contradicted by other evidence in this case. 64 (TR VII at 468-469). This is a standard jury charge in a case of this nature, and properly so. A review of his testimony does indicate that Hudson was defensive and evasive on the stand. However, our review of the record does not indicate his conduct was so egregious that it both antagonized and influenced the jury to render a verdict adverse to the City. Rather as we have indicated in our discussion of the trial court's decision to grant defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, there was sufficient evidence upon which a properly instructed jury could return a verdict against the City, which it did. Therefore, the decision of the district court to grant defendant's motion for a new trial is reversed. 65 AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.