Court Opinion

ID: 9764131
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:11:29.108062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:53.844851
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
dissenting:
I have such admiration for the careful analysis and fine expression of conclusion provided by the author of the majority view, that I am hesitant to take a different position. However, I am so repulsed by the vile and inhuman conduct of Barry Friedberg and Lee Friedberg that I am compelled to opine that whatever the procedural deficiency in the record before us, the punitive damage awards are so inadequate that the jury must have miscomprehended its role.
The esteemed Judge Gwilym A. Price, Jr. stated for this Court:
When a jury reaches an ambiguous or improper verdict, one proper remedy is to permit them to correct the mistake or ambiguity. Moreover, when a verdict shows confusion and lack of understanding of the issues involved, a new trial may be granted.
Rusidoff v. DeBolt Transfer, Inc., 251 Pa.Super. 208, 211-212, 380 A.2d 451, 453 (1977) (citations omitted). This Court subsequently stated, in an opinion authored by the distinguished Judge Frank J. Montemuro, Jr.:
The jury’s verdict was so inconsistent with the determination of liability that we can only conclude that it was premised upon some mistake or misapprehension. Under these circumstances we find the verdict inconsistent with the determination of liability that we can only conclude that it was premised upon some mistake or misapprehension. Under these circumstances we find the verdict to be shocking and the refusal of the trial court to grant a new trial to be an abuse of discretion. Consequently, that decision must be reversed.
*657McIntyre v. Clark, 314 Pa.Super. 552, 558, 461 A.2d 295, 298 (1983).
While I must concede that these holdings addressed compensatory damage verdicts, there appears no reason why the same rationale should not apply when a jury has determined that the behavior of a party has been so abhorrent that punitive damages should be awarded, but then proceeds to an award of an amount which is totally inconsistent with the repugnance of the wrongful behavior and the damage wrought.
Section 908(1) of the Restatement (Second) of Torts states that punitive damages are damages “awarded against a person to punish him for his outrageous conduct”, (emphasis added). In assessing punitive damages, the trier of fact may consider the character of the tortfeasor’s act, the nature and extent of his victim’s harm, and the wealth of the tortfeasor.
Kirkbride v. Lisbon Contractors, Inc., 521 Pa. ——, ——, 555 A.2d 800, 802 (1989) (emphasis supplied).
First, it was not enough for the Friedberg brothers to enjoy the enhanced station in life, affluence, and social advantage attendant the preferred role of employer which the fates had bestowed upon them, while imposing upon Gibson Butler the rank of their employee. Instead, the brothers engaged in the perfidious undertaking of snatching from Gibson Butler the sole characteristic which they all shared equally, reputation.
Second, no more sacred right is enjoyed by a citizen than the presumption of innocence. Moreover, the entire focus of our criminal justice system is to protect the innocent or, as the proverb, become principle, proclaims: it is better that ninety-nine guilty go free than that one innocent be convicted. But neither law, nor Constitution, nor even Commandment can protect the victim of false accusation, contrived evidence, and perjured testimony.
Third, the Constitution of Pennsylvania, since the very earliest days of this Commonwealth, has focused upon the intrinsic dignity of each of its citizens, and, in doing so, *658equated reputation as sacred as life and liberty, for as the very first section of Article I of the current Constitution of 1874 proclaims:
Inherent Rights of Mankind
Section 1. All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent an indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property and reputation, and of purusing their own happiness, (emphasis supplied).
Though one’s property passes to others, and one’s bones become dust, one’s reputation remains. The shadow of the man himself disappears in death, but the shadow upon his reputation survives and survives to become history and to be cast upon his children and on to their issue. Thus, reputation is a unique attribute and, once stained, so irretrievably blemished that even punitive damages are inadequate recompense for the harm. Clearly, such outrageous conduct merits imposition upon the transgressors of a far more punitive sanction than the jury delivered.
Thus it is that I would grant a new trial solely upon the issue of punitive damages.