Court Opinion

ID: 9557854
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:58:59.570738+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:35.918040
License: Public Domain

SPENCE, J.
I dissent.
If the judgment herein had not included an award for $4,500 as exemplary damages but had consisted only of an award of $5,500 as compensatory damages, I could agree that such judgment for compensatory damages only should be affirmed. The pleadings here, however, contained neither an express allegation of “oppression, fraud, or malice” (Civ. Code, § 3294) nor any prayer for exemplary damages, and I cannot agree that malice, as the basis for an award of exemplary damages, was ever made an issue by the pleadings or otherwise. On the contrary, the complaint was in the usual form of a complaint for compensatory damages only, and there was nothing in the pleadings or evidence to apprise defendant that any claim for exemplary damages was to be made. Under such circumstances, the award of exemplary damages should not be permitted to stand.
*607The great weight of authority adheres to the rule stated in 15 American Jurisprudence, at pages 766 and 767, as follows: “To entitle a person to exemplary damages he must set up distinctly in his complaint the elements that make up the basis of his claim for such damages and must make such averments as will advise the defendant that he will have to meet a demand of that kind at the trial. " This is a salutary rule, for where a recovery is sought for an amount over and above the sum which will fully compensate plaintiff for the wrong inflicted, such additional recovery is in the nature of a penalty, which should not be allowed unless defendant has been clearly apprised of the nature and basis of plaintiff’s demand.
In Lorenz v. Hunt, 89 Cal.App. 6 [264 P. 336], the court said at page 15: “ The complaint contains no allegation of oppression, fraud or malice on the part of defendant nor any demand for exemplary damages. There is no basis, therefore, for the award of punitive damages. (8 Cal.Jur. 894.) It is true that there is sufficient evidence to show malice and the court found that the defendant’s assault upon the plaintiff and her arrest by him were malicious and oppressive, but it cannot be held that the case was tried upon the theory that the question of punitive damages was in issue, because the evidence tending to show malice and oppression was admissible in support of the allegation of actual damages.”
The situation presented in the cited case cannot be distinguished from that existing here. The mere fact that plaintiff may have proposed instructions on exemplary damages at some time during the trial cannot, in and of itself, be made the basis for the claim that the case was tried upon the theory that the question of exemplary damages was in issue. In my opinion, the case of Lorens v. Hunt, supra, correctly sets forth the rules governing the circumstances under which exemplary damages may be awarded, and it should be followed rather than disapproved.
Shenk, J., and Edmonds, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied April 29, 1948. Shenk, J., Edmonds, J., and Spence, J., voted for a rehearing.