Court Opinion

ID: 9641612
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:36:13.076707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:38.724748
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
dissenting.
The principal opinion properly holds that the plaintiff’s evidence made a submissible case for liability and for actual and punitive damages. I believe that the defendant should be entitled to a new trial in which the jury is instructed on punitive damages in accordance with Sanders v. Daniel In*508ternational Corp., 682 S.W.2d 803 (Mo. banc 1984). I maintain the views as to the form such instructions could take as set out in my Opinion Concurring in Result in Sanders.
I recognize the assertion in the principal opinion that the defendant showed no inclination to challenge the form of the instructions on punitive damages in the trial court, during trial or on motion for new trial. This failure would ordinarily preclude relief. Sanders had not been decided at the time the case was tried, and so counsel can hardly be faulted for not complaining about a submission which was apparently in accord with MAI and the governing law, but a party who submits a case under currently-approved instructions should normally be entitled to hold his verdict if the case is otherwise error free. Gustafson v. Benda, 661 S.W.2d 11 (Mo. banc 1983).
In Vaughan v. Taft Broadcasting Company, 708 S.W.2d 656 (Mo. banc 1986), however, we held that there is no vested interest in a punitive damage award. Because of this holding I do not believe that the punitive damage award in this case should be allowed to stand. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.
New trial on the issue of punitive damages alone is not practicable because the jury is obliged to consider all facts and circumstances. I would, however, give the plaintiff the option of relinquishing his claim for punitive damages and allowing the judgment to be modified to award actual damages only.