Court Opinion

ID: 9794222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:01:24.96586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:13:00.598638
License: Public Domain

GERBER, Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion upholding the $100,000 punitive damage award. While there is no showing of passion or prejudice, the award is simply excessive for this wrongdoer and, in a larg*185er sense, for all of us. I would grant a remittitur as I believe the trial court should have done under A.R.S. 12-2104, to reduce that sum to something in the neighborhood of $50,000.
Hawkins v. Allstate Insur. Co., 152 Ariz. 490, 501, 783 P.2d 1073, 1084 (1987) counsels that the wealthier a defendant, the greater may be the punitive damages; the obverse of this principle is that the less wealthy a defendant, the lower should be the punitive damages. Hawkins also advises that punitive damages should not destroy an individual. In my opinion, that will happen here. The destruction will go beyond this culpable individual to innocent family members and may well come back to bite society — all of us — in the heel.
This defendant is a young, relatively newly married man with a non-employed wife, with two children who, at trial time, were five years and one month old respectively. He had lost his job in bankruptcy proceedings. His income in the year in question was $38,000; in the prior year it was approximately $44,000. He is the sole support of his family. In addition to suffering compensatory damages of $133,000, he is now saddled with an additional $100,-000 in punitive damages.
The $100,000 punitive damage award is two to two and one-half times his family’s annual income. It is not speculative to envision that its effects go well beyond punishing simply this defendant. For him to pay off the $100,000 out of savings, even at the harsh rate of $500 per month, without any payment of interest, would require 17 years; when interest is added, it could take almost twice as long, possibly his entire remaining life. This punishment spreads beyond this wrongdoer; it punishes his three innocent family members as well and could readily deny or seriously impair education for the children, force the wife or husband to work second or third jobs, cause deprivation of basic family needs, and put the marriage itself to the test.
The law’s deterrent desires regarding this defendant’s drinking problem need be balanced against other social values. Deterrence needs to be measured against the long term effects upon society at large when the debilitation of this family taxes all of us on the rebound. It little profits us as a society to deter so mightily as to cause greater disasters. While I have not a shred of sympathy for this defendant’s conduct and find some punitive damages well warranted, I regret the court’s failure to consider the larger picture. Pulverizing defendants for outrageous conduct can lead to social fall-out beyond the punitive satisfaction of the moment. It is a narrow view to consider simply the true but worn refrain of “sending a message” of deterrence; we also need to embrace the larger view of the effects of disproportionate punitive damage assessments on a family and our larger society when its members are destroyed by poverty, debt, or even unyielding cynicism. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the arctic winter of punishment has here encroached on prudence, leaving one to ponder Clausewitz's comment that, at times, the law becomes plunder without the excuse of war.