California Punitive Damages

Recent Posts from California Punitive Damages

• Florida Jury Awards $244 Million in Punitive Damages to Smoker

  As reported by Reuters, a Florida jury has awarded $56.6 million in compensatory damages and $244 million in punitive damages to a smoker with emphysema. This is by far the largest verdict in the 8,000…

• Buell-Wilson Cert. Petition Featured on SCOTUSblog's "Petitions to Watch"

  SCOTUSblog has identified the cert. petition in Buell-Wilson as one of the "petitions to watch" for the Supreme Court's upcoming conference on November 24. The SCOTUSblog post includes links to the opinion and the petition-stage…

• $5 Million Punitive Damages Award in Beef Jerky Dispute

  Punitive damages arise in some strange contexts. In this opinion, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals reinstated a $5 million punitive damages award in a father-son feud over control of a beef jerky empire. The trial…

• Gunderson v. Wall: Inconsistencies in Defendant'sTestimony Are Not Alone Sufficient to Support Punitive Damages

  This unpublished opinion shoots down an argument that arises fairly often in punitive damages appeals. When the issue on appeal is whether the plaintiff failed to prove malice by clear and convincing evidence, plaintiffs sometimes…

• Punitive Damages Against Drug Manufacturers

  Drug and Device Law has a lengthy post arguing that punitive damages should be unavailable in most product liability lawsuits against prescription drug manufacturers. The post collects authorities from various jurisdictions for the proposition that…

• Jackson v. Yarbray: Defendants Can Be Jointly and Severally Liable for Punitive Damages

  To my knowledge, this opinion is the first published opinion in California to uphold joint and several liability for punitive damages. If anyone knows about another one, I would love to hear about it.The trial…

• DOJ Issues Latest Report on State Tort Litigation, Including Punitive Damages Awards

  The Department of Justice has issued a statistical report entitled "Tort Bench and Jury Trials in State Courts, 2005." Last year the DOJ issued a similar study covering all state court trials (see this post),…

• Oregon Court of Appeals Reverses $7 Million Punitive Damages Award, Splits on the Appropriate Remedy

  The Oregon courts are once again making news in punitive damages litigation. Last week, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued this opinion in Wieber v. Fed Ex, reversing a $7 million punitive damages award as…

• Oregon Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Another Tobacco Case with Huge Punitive Award

  Oregon has been a major battleground in punitive damages litigation in recent years, a trend that shows no signs of letting up. As we noted last week, the Oregon Supreme Court has agreed to decide…

• A Mixed Bag For Pfizer On Prempro Punitive Damages

  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That adage is illustrated by these two reports which appear today on Bloomberg.com:Pfizer Doesn't Have to Pay $27 Million Prempro [Punitive Damages] AwardPfizer Jury Said to Award $75 Million…