Court Opinion

ID: 9677560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:55:19.997795+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:56.817999
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
Appellants on application for rehearing, among other matters, take issue with the use of the word “willful” in the following statement in paragraph three, page 428 of our original opinion:
“To such compensatory damages the jury may add punitive damages if the trespass or conversion was willful, fraudulent, done in known violation of law or attended with circumstance of malice, insult or disregard of the rights or interest of the mortgagor. Roan v. Smith, supra; Russell-Vaughn Ford, Inc. v. Rouse, 281 Ala. 567, 206 So.2d 371.”
It is appellants argument that we have extended the rule of law applicable to the award of punitive damages in the actions of trespass to or conversion of chattels. They contend that no case previously has used the word “willful” as descriptive of the act from which exemplary or punitive damages may be awarded at the discretion of the jury. An examination of the cases cited indicates that appellants are correct in stating that the word willful does not appear in them as we used it in our opinion. We do not agree that our use of “willful” in our opinion extends the rule in such cases. The connotation of the word “willful” as we used it and as it appears almost invariably in legal phraseology is one of premeditated wrong, an act done with evil intent or bad motive or purpose, unlawful, and without legal justification. It implies not only the voluntary and intentional doing of an act, but also the intending of the result which follows from the doing of the act. Such is the meaning of the word as it is found in our penal statutes and as it is used in describing a tortious act or injury. Potter v. United States, 155 U.S. 438, 15 S.Ct. 144, 39 L.Ed. 214; Birmingham Ry., Light & Power Co. v. Norton, 7 Ala.App. 571, 61 So. 459; Adler v. Martin, 179 Ala. 97, 59 So. 597. Vol. 45, Words and Phrases, p. 359.
Until called to our attention by appellants in this instance we had not *360thought of the following quotation from the case of Roan v. McCaleb, 264 Ala. 31, 84 So.2d 358, as being in the conjunctive.
“If the conversion was committed in known violation of the law and of plaintiff’s rights with circumstances of insult, or contumely, or malice, punitive damages were recoverable in the discretion of the jury. (Emphasis supplied).”
Upon consideration now we do not conclude that the conjunctive is intended or required in the above quotation. It appears from a legal sense the statement is redundant rather than conjunctive. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of a conversion or a trespass committed in known violation of the law and of plaintiffs’ rights not to be accompanied by insult, contumely or malice. The “known,” intentional and “willful” violation of the law and of plaintiffs’ rights in and of itself is legal insult, contumely and malice. The first phrase of the quotation is a good definition of malice in law. Black’s Law Dictionary, Revised Fourth Edition defines malice in law as “the intentional doing of a wrongful act without just cause or excuse.”
To conclude, we think that upon the commission of any tortious act, including trespass to or conversion of personal property, committed willfully, in known violation of the law and of plaintiffs’ rights, the jury in its discretion and under proper instructions may award punitive damages.
This extension of our original opinion is merely in amplification and explanation of the statement therein challenged on application for rehearing and is not intended to enlarge or change the same.
Other matters presented on application for rehearing are not considered to require further comment.
Opinion extended—application denied.