Court Opinion

ID: 9662088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:59:18.577668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:35.900258
License: Public Domain

PARRISH, Judge,
concurring.
Mindful that this court is constitutionally bound to follow controlling decisions of the Supreme Court of Missouri, I reluctantly *158concur. See Mo. Const, art. V, § 2; Chambers v. Figgie Int’l., Inc., 838 S.W.2d 168, 171 (Mo.App.1992).
In Haynam v. Laclede Elec. Coop., Inc., 827 S.W.2d 200, 204-05 (Mo. banc 1992) (Haynam I), the supreme court held that plaintiffs made a submissible case for punitive damages. Haynam I sought recovery in tort for wrongful termination of electrical services based on intentional wrongful acts by the power company. The supreme court reversed the judgment for plaintiff for reasons not germane to this appeal. In so doing, it suggested that upon retrial plaintiffs might wish to submit their claim for actual damages on a theory of negligent termination — that both intentionally terminating electrical service and negligently terminating electrical service were actionable. Id. at 204 n. 1.
Upon retrial plaintiffs followed the supreme court’s advice. They sought actual damages for negligent termination of electrical service. They again sought punitive damages based on the power company’s allegedly outrageous conduct and evil motives or reckless indifference to their rights. Plaintiffs’ efforts were rewarded by jury verdicts for $1,063.56 actual damages and $50,000 punitive damages. The trial court entered judgment in accordance with the verdicts.
Punitive damages require scienter. As stated in the principal opinion, “Essential to an award of punitive damages is evidence of the defendant’s culpable mental state.” Haynam v. Laclede Elec. Coop., Inc., 889 S.W.2d 148, 151 (Mo.App.1994), citing Burnett v. Griffith, 769 S.W.2d 780, 787 (Mo. banc 1989).
The principal opinion points out that the evidence of defendant’s “state of mind” was essentially the same at the second trial as that recited by the supreme court in Hay-nam I, 827 S.W.2d at 202-04. Since the supreme court held, in Haynam I, that the evidence supported punitive damages when the underlying cause of action was based on an intentional tort, logic dictates that the same evidence will support punitive damages when the underlying cause of action is based on negligence. I feel constrained to con-elude, therefore, that the trial court’s award of punitive damages must be affirmed.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, I do not agree with the supreme court’s conclusion in Haynam I that the evidence supported an award for punitive damages. Considering the present state of Missouri law, I believe the principal opinion’s analysis regarding punitive damages is technically and legally correct. I further believe, however, that this case suggests Missouri law with respect to punitive damages is in disarray, is confusing and defies reasonable application in negligence cases.1 I make this statement in hope that the supreme court of this state, or perhaps the general assembly, will, at an opportune time, undertake a review of punitive damages and provide an understandable statement regarding punitive damages in negligence actions. Although legally correct, I believe the result reached in this case with respect to punitive damages is unconscionable.

. I do not believe the evidence in this case is akin to the evidence in Poner v. Erickson Transport Corp., 851 S.W.2d 725 (Mo.App.1993), that was held sufficient to support submission of punitive damages to a jury, nor that the evidence in this case approaches that in May v. AOG Holding Corp., 810 S.W.2d 655 (Mo.App.1991), that was held not to have sufficed to submit the issue of punitive damages to a jury.