Court Opinion

ID: 9511700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:07:06.715802+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:08.048025
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RICE
specially concurring.
¶49 I concur completely with the Court’s opinion. In challenging the award of punitive damages, Czajkowskis offer that their behavior was “misunderstood” by the District Court, explaining as follows:
There exists in this case a cultural chasm. The Czajkowskis, from New Jersey, were accustomed to the gritty, raw, abrupt, in-your-*518face habits and customs of the industrial cities of the northeast. The Meyers on the other hand were accustomed to the subtler southern charms of suburban Georgia where they had a lovely acre on which to retire at the end of each day.
The potential slight to New Jerseyans aside, the offensive and invasive actions of the Czajowskis in this case, which the opinion necessarily only briefly summarizes, cannot be justified by distinctions within the country’s regional cultures. I dare say that their extreme behavior would be unacceptable anywhere. And even if their experiences in the Garden State had somehow predisposed them to engage in aggressive behavior toward others, they would have been well-advised to remember ‘When in Rome ...” and other common human decencies. The District Court’s punitive damage award was very modest and very appropriate.