Court Opinion

ID: 9544419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:55:32.829083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:12:56.899251
License: Public Domain

OLSZEWSKI, Judge,
dissenting:
I must disagree with the majority’s holding that an award of punitive damages must bear a reasonable relationship to the amount awarded as compensatory damages. I believe that the better course would be to acknowledge the different purpose served by each type of damages and to adopt the view of the Second Restatement of Torts. The Restatement’s section on punitive damages reads:
(1) Punitive damages are damages, other than compensatory or nominal damages, awarded against a person to punish him for his outrageous conduct and to deter him and others like him from similar conduct in the future.
(2) Punitive damages may be awarded for conduct that is outrageous, because of the defendant’s evil motive or his reckless indifference to the rights of others. In assessing punitive damages, the trier of fact can properly consider the character of the defendant’s act, the nature and extent of the harm to the plaintiff that the defendant caused or intended to cause and the wealth of the defendant.
Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 908. Comment c to that section states that “it is not essential to the recovery of punitive damages that the plaintiff should have suffered any harm, either pecuniary or physical.” Id. comment c.
The considerations given by the Restatement for assessment of punitive damages provide ample means by which punitive awards may be scrutinized. This view allows for greater flexibility than the one adopted by the majority today without abandoning stability. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Joined by DEL SOLE, J.