Opinion ID: 880020
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence for Punitive Damages

Text: Here, Bank contends that the award of punitive damages was improper and must have been the result of passion and prejudice. What was said by this Court in Gilmore v. Mulvihill, supra, is equally applicable to the jury award of punitive damages. As we have indicated above, the jury was given proper instructions to determine the breach had occurred. The jury was likewise instructed as to what it must find with respect to punitive damages. The Bank does not contend that those instructions were inadequate and indeed they seem to contain the necessary elements to properly instruct the jury on this item. The jury having been properly instructed, once again, we are left to the familiar appellate rules which are recited above respecting the sufficiency of the evidence. The jury found a breach of an implied covenant, and it found that the breach was oppressive, malicious and arbitrary. Once having made that determination, the jury determines the amount of damages.