Opinion ID: 1269651
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reduction of the Punitive Damages Award

Text: The jury awarded Mendez $1 each in nominal damages for her false arrest and illegal search claims and $250,000 in punitive damages against Reyes, whom it found to have acted in reckless disregard of her constitutional rights. After trial, the County moved to remit the award, arguing that it was excessive in violation of the Due Process Clause under BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559, 116 S.Ct. 1589, 134 L.Ed.2d 809 (1996), and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408, 123 S.Ct. 1513, 155 L.Ed.2d 585 (2003). The district court agreed and reduced the punitive damages award to $5,000, finding the punitive damages award excessive in light of the nominal compensatory damages awarded. We evaluate the constitutionality of a punitive damages award by following the guideposts provided by the Supreme Court, assessing: (1) the degree of reprehensibility, (2) the disparity between the harm suffered and the punitive damages award, and (3) the difference between this remedy and the civil penalties authorized or imposed in comparable cases. Bains LLC v. Arco Prods. Co., 405 F.3d 764, 775 (9th Cir.2005) (citing Gore, 517 U.S. at 574-75, 116 S.Ct. 1589). We review the district court's application of the Gore guide-posts to a jury's punitive damages award de novo, but defer to the district court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. Am. Coalition of Life Activists, 422 F.3d 949, 953-54 (9th Cir.2005). Mendez argues that the jury's award was not unconstitutionally excessive and so should be reinstated. We disagree and affirm the district court. State Farm enumerates the factors we should consider when evaluating the reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct under the first guidepost. We look to whether the harm caused was physical as opposed to economic; the tortious conduct evinced an indifference to or a reckless disregard of the health or safety of others; the target of the conduct had financial vulnerability; the conduct involved repeated actions or was an isolated incident; and the harm was the result of intentional malice, trickery, or deceit, or mere accident. State Farm, 538 U.S. at 419, 123 S.Ct. 1513. Reprehensibility falls along a scale, with acts and threats of violence at the top, followed by acts taken in reckless disregard for others' health and safety, affirmative acts of trickery and deceit, and finally, acts of omission and mere negligence. Swinton v. Potomac Corp., 270 F.3d 794, 818 (9th Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks omitted). Although determining the degree of reprehensibility ultimately involves a legal conclusion, we must accept the underlying facts as found by the jury and the district court, because district courts have a somewhat superior vantage in assessing the defendant's conduct. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. v. Cooper Indus., Inc., 285 F.3d 1146, 1150 (9th Cir.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). Applying the Supreme Court's guidance in State Farm, the district court found that Reyes' conduct in failing to translate the consent-to-search form and illegally detaining Mendez at the police station was not so reprehensible as to justify the jury's award of punitive damages. The court noted, among other things, that although the jury found that Reyes acted with reckless disregard for Mendez's rights, there was no evidence that he acted with malice. Accordingly, on the range of reprehensible conduct identified by the Supreme Court, the district court found that Reyes' conduct was closer to mere accident than it was to malice. The court also found, and Mendez now concedes, that there is no evidence that Reyes had acted in the same manner on any other occasion, thus making this the kind of isolated incident the Court found less reprehensible than repeated conduct. State Farm, 538 U.S. at 419, 123 S.Ct. 1513. Reyes' conduct lastly did not pose any risk to Mendez's bodily health or safety. Although the injury here was physical and emotional rather than economic, the district court noted that the jury's award of nominal damages ultimately indicated that the harm caused by Reyes' conduct was minimal. Although Mendez concedes that not all the reprehensibility factors point in her favor, she argues that Reyes' conduct was nonetheless reprehensible because of its recklessness and because Mendez, while not financially vulnerable, was particularly vulnerable to the kind of constitutional deprivation she suffered here. We agree with other courts that abuses of police power not involving actual violence are still reprehensible, insofar as they involve an illegal exercise of authority backed by the weight and force of state power. Lee v. Edwards, 101 F.3d 805, 810 (2d Cir.1996). We certainly do not approve of Reyes' having deliberately and illegally withheld relevant information from Mendez and pressuring her to sign the consent-to-search form, knowing that she was reluctant to agree and was not fully aware of her rights. Nonetheless, the district court's findings of fact as to the reprehensibility of Reyes' conduct were not clearly erroneous. The degree of reprehensibility therefore weighs against the jury's substantial punitive damages award here. Under the second Gore guidepost, we look to the ratio between the punitive damages and the actual harm inflicted on the plaintiff. 517 U.S. at 580, 116 S.Ct. 1589. In this case, because Mendez was awarded only nominal damages, the award of $250,000 in punitive damages  which represents a ratio of 125,000 to one  is obviously considerably in excess of the single-digit ratios the Court has deemed more likely to comport with due process than higher ratios. See State Farm, 538 U.S. at 425, 123 S.Ct. 1513. The Court, however, has carved out an exception relevant to this case, which is that ratios greater than those we have previously upheld may comport with due process where a particularly egregious act has resulted in only a small amount of economic damages. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Constitutional torts such as Mendez's are far more likely to present such scenarios. Ratios in excess of single digits in § 1983 suits therefore will not generally violate due process when the victim suffers no compensable injury. If we were to hold otherwise, then  any appreciable exemplary award would produce a ratio that would appear excessive by this measure. Lee, 101 F.3d at 811. This would conflict with the Court's clear guidance that punitive damages should remain available under § 1983 even in the absence of a compensable injury, and that in such situations punitive damages may be the only significant remedy available. Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 55 n. 21, 103 S.Ct. 1625, 75 L.Ed.2d 632 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court did not rule otherwise, however, and awarded Mendez $5,000 in punitive damages  a ratio of 2,500 to one, which is also significantly in excess of single digits. The district court firmly rejected the County's suggestion that the only punitive damages award that would comport with due process would be an $18 award, noting that such a small award would not be sufficient to deter other law enforcement officers from engaging in similar conduct in the future. Although we agree that the second Gore guidepost may have reduced relevance in § 1983 suits involving only nominal damages, we do not agree with Mendez's contrary suggestion that this factor has no relevance. In this case, the jury awarded a staggering $250,000 in punitive damages, even though the jury found that Mendez suffered no compensable injury from Reyes' actions. While the second Gore guidepost may not be dispositive of the excessiveness of the award in this case, the great disparity between the actual and punitive damages does not cut in Mendez's favor. Under the final Gore guidepost, we compare the punitive damages award in this case to any civil or criminal penalties authorized or imposed in comparable cases. 517 U.S. at 583-84, 116 S.Ct. 1589; see also State Farm, 538 U.S. at 428, 123 S.Ct. 1513. Other circuits have placed greater emphasis on this factor when a civil penalty was readily available as a yardstick of reasonableness and actual damages in the case were nominal or small. In cases involving illegal discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, for example, courts of appeals have upheld punitive damage awards of approximately $50,000 despite small actual damage awards, in part because this amount roughly equaled the civil penalty available for these violations. See, e.g., Lincoln v. Case, 340 F.3d 283, 294 (5th Cir.2003); United States v. Big D Enters., 184 F.3d 924, 933 (8th Cir.1999). Mendez, however, identifies no civil penalty available under law for violations of constitutional rights, nor has she identified any comparable cases in which a civil penalty of $250,000 was imposed for the kind of conduct Reyes engaged in here. Accordingly, this factor provides no guidance in assessing the constitutionality of the award. Considering all of the Gore guideposts, we conclude that the jury's award was unconstitutionally excessive in violation of due process and therefore properly remitted by the district court. Because the punitive damages award was excessive under the Due Process Clause, we need not decide whether it was also excessive as a matter of federal common law. See Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 2605, 2626-27, 171 L.Ed.2d 570 (2008). Constitutional torts are governed by the federal common law, subject to the authority of Congress to legislate otherwise. See Smith, 461 U.S. at 34, 103 S.Ct. 1625 (holding that damage remedies in § 1983 suits are determined by looking first to the common law of torts (both modern and as of 1871)). In Exxon Shipping, the Court held that the federal common law of maritime torts should contain more rigorous standards than the constitutional limit on punitive damage awards, and concluded that a 1:1 ratio, which is above the median award, is a fair upper limit. Id. at 2629, 2633. Any attempt to fashion a federal common law rule of reasonableness for punitive damage awards for constitutional torts, however, would have to make such modification or adaptation [to the common law] as might be necessary to carry out the purpose and policy of § 1983. Smith, 461 U.S. at 34, 103 S.Ct. 1625. We decline to make any such rules here, when we agree that the award was excessive as a matter of due process. We therefore affirm the district court's remittur.