Court Opinion

ID: 9737028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:13:26.021332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:56.011070
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
To those facts, cited in the majority, these facts are noted for further understanding in this case: Between August 1973 and August 1975, the City constructed a sewer line across the would-be easement. Settlement negotiations apparently went on from the filing of the summons and complaint on December 10, 1973, through February 7, 1984.* If settlement negotiations were unfruitful, it would appear to any reasonable person, schooled in the law, or layperson, that this matter should have been resolved in far less than fourteen years. However, as noted in the footnote, an Answer and Counterclaim triggered some action in this case. This consisted of a motion for a change of venue and a motion to substitute parties. Then, about three more years of delay set in and the case was finally tried to a jury on January 12 and 13, 1987.
A verdict of $3,800 was granted for the taking (easement) and $625 “for use of the easement” since 1974. Below, the $625 award was struck as being a duplication, but the trial court held that appellants were entitled to interest. It was the trial court’s rationale that the $625 award be set aside, due to the trial court’s allowance of prejudgment interest. The trial court did not want to award a monetary amount for the same damage. A claim for attorneys fees, expenses, sales tax, and expert witness fees were all denied by the trial court. A judgment for $3,800 was awarded below, together with an accumulated interest of $6,479, plus allowable taxable costs of $166.42. Interest was to accumulate on the judgment from its entry date of February 1, 1987.
We are confronted with the issues as set forth by the majority opinion. I agree with the result of the majority opinion and concur in it, subject to the substantive legal position I specially write upon.
It is my opinion that the trial court’s ruling on denying punitive damages against a municipal corporation per se, namely, Mitchell, South Dakota, is correct. Overwhelming authority, throughout the United States, substantiates the trial court’s decision. Annot., 1 A.L.R. 4th 448, 454-59 (1980).
Punitive damages are established for the purposes of setting a public example. Were the taxpayers required to bear the burden of a punitive award, the law would be self-defeating. Taxpayers should not bear the burden of a punitive award, for they are the identical group (the people) who are expected to benefit from the public example which the punishment births as a result of the wrongdoers’ acts. Chappell v. City of Springfield, 423 S.W.2d 810 (Mo. 1968); Nixon v. Oklahoma City, 555 P.2d 1283 (Okla.1976).
There seems to be no social benefit derived from an imposition of exemplary damages against the general public. In 18 E. McQuillin, The Law of Municipal Cor*708porations § 53.18a, at 220-21 (3d rev. ed. 1984), a general summary of reasons is set forth as to why punitive damages are not recoverable from municipal corporations. Nonexistence of deterrence is one major reason. Therefore, unlike the majority opinion, I would address the chief substantive issue which bottomed the trial court’s decision. Having made this quantum leap, i.e., that municipal corporations are not subject to an award of exemplary or punitive damages against them, as did the trial judge, like he, I would not proceed with any hearing to determine whether there was any “clear and convincing evidence, that there is a reasonable basis to believe that there has been willful, wanton or malicious conduct on the part of the party claimed against.” SDCL 21-1-4.1. Incidentally, the language so far as the proof is concerned, in the latter statute, is very difficult to follow, for it seems to establish two platforms of proof. However, this is dreaded obiter dicta, and should be left for another sunny day in the world of civil jurisprudence.

 Although the City instituted condemnation on December 10, 1973, no further action was taken by the City to complete the condemnation proceedings until 1984, i.e., about ten years later, when defendants filed an Answer and Counterclaim.