Download or read book Due Process and Punitive Damages written by A. Benjamin Spencer and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Supreme Court, in a line of several cases over the past decade, has established a rigorous federal constitutional excessiveness review for punitive damages awards based on the Due Process Clause. As a matter of substantive due process, says the Court, punitive awards must be evaluated by three guideposts set forth in BMW of North America v. Gore: the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct, the ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, and a comparison of the amount of punitive damages to any civil or criminal penalties that could be imposed for comparable misconduct. Following up on this pronouncement in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Campbell, the Court indicated that few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages to a significant degree will satisfy due process. Unfortunately, neither the guideposts nor the single-digit multiple rule have any basis in the law of due process and represent nothing more than the imposition of the Court's own standards for punishment in place of those of the states. This Article reveals the defectiveness of this jurisprudence by exposing the absence of precedential foundation for the Court's current view. More significantly, this Article demonstrates that the Court's interpretation of the Due Process Clause is at odds with important rules of constitutional construction, mainly those supplied by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which protect unenumerated rights and limit the national government to exercising delegated powers, respectively. Together, these amendments prohibit expansive interpretations of the Constitution that disparage rights retained by the people and that arrogate to the national government powers that neither the states nor the people ever relinquished. The Court's interpretation of the Due Process Clause with respect to punitive damages transgresses both of these limitations. This Article suggests that a proper understanding of due process reveals that it requires only that punitive awards be reserved for wrongdoing beyond simple negligence, that jurors be instructed that any punitive award they impose must be designed to further states' legitimate interest in punishment of in-state conduct and deterrence, and that judicial review of the awards be available to check adherence to these requirements. Beyond that, the Due Process Clause fails to require that punitive damages awards be constrained to a particular level.
Download or read book Procedural Due Process and Predictable Punitive Damage Awards written by Jill Wieber Lens and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, the Supreme Court's most recent opinion on punitive damage awards, the Court declared that the real problem with punitive damage awards is their "stark unpredictability." The Court abandoned all hope that common law jury instructions could produce predictable punitive damage awards. Instead, the Court suggested pegging punitive damage awards to compensatory damage awards. So far, analysis of the opinion has been minimal, likely due to the purported maritime law basis of the holding. Exxon should not be overlooked, however, as it signals a resurgence of procedural due process as a basis for challenging punitive damage awards—a type of challenge that the Court has not heard since the early 1990s. Predictability of the amount is no different than fair notice of the likely severity of an award, which procedural due process requires. If common law jury instructions cannot produce predictable punitive damage awards, they also cannot produce awards consistent with the notice procedural due process requires. The Exxon Court's pegging solution will not produce predictable awards (and ones that comply with procedural due process) because it relies on compensatory damages, which are inherently unpredictable. As an alternative, this Article suggests looking to restitution, a non-controversial punitive, civil remedy. Basing punitive damages on the defendant's gain would produce predictable awards—as procedural due process requires.”
Download or read book Punitive Damages written by Linda L. Schlueter and published by Michie. This book was released on 1995 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Arc of Due Process in American Constitutional Law written by E. Thomas Sullivan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Arc of Due Process in American Constitutional Law, Sullivan and Massaro identify the historical underpinnings of due process while describing the evolution of the American due process doctrine.
Download or read book Potential Congressional Responses to the Supreme Court s Decision in State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins V Cambell written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on the Constitution and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constitutional Limits on Punitive Damages Awards written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Courts sometimes award punitive (or exemplary) damages in addition to compensatory damages. Compensatory damages redress the "loss the plaintiff has suffered by reason of the defendant's wrongful conduct." Punitive damages serve the dual purposes of deterrence and retribution, and are viewed as "quasi-criminal" and as "private fines"; the Supreme Court has defined their imposition as "an expression of [the jury's] moral condemnation." In a 5-4 decision on February 20, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated and remanded the Oregon Supreme Court's decision in Philip Morris USA v. Williams, a case in which the Oregon Supreme Court held that a punitive damages award of $79.5 million did not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court had granted certiorari to consider "[w]hether, in reviewing a jury's award of punitive damages, an appellate court's conclusion that a defendant's conduct was highly reprehensible and analogous to a crime can 'override' the constitutional requirement that punitive damages be reasonably related to the plaintiff's harm." The Court had further agreed to consider "[w]hether due process permits a jury to punish a defendant for the effects of its conduct on non-parties." Holding that the Due Process Clause does not allow a jury to base the amount of a punitive damage award on the jury's "desire to punish the defendant for harming persons who are not before the court," the Court then declined to examine whether the $79.5 million award was "grossly excessive." This report summarizes decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in relevant punitive damages cases, discusses lower court rulings in Philip Morris USA v. Williams, analyzes arguments in the appeal of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, examines factors the Court considered in its decision, and elucidates concerns for the future.
Download or read book Death by a Thousand Cuts written by Victor E. Schwartz and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Successfully Challenging Punitive Damage Awards written by Theodore J. Boutrous and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Punitive Damages and Business Torts written by Thomas J. Collin and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 1998 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Punitive Damages written by Linda L. Schlueter and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 1050 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Punitive Damages Law and Practice written by James D. Ghiardi and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 1514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Due Process and Punitive Damages written by Keith N. Hylton and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper sets out a public choice (rent-seeking) theory of the Due Process Clause, which implies that the function of the clause is to prevent takings through the legislative or common law process. This view of the clause's function supports a preference for expanding rather than contracting the set of entitlements protected by the clause. The Supreme Court's application of due process reasoning in the punitive damages case law is in some respects consistent and in other respects inconsistent with this theory. For the most part, the Court has failed to develop a set of doctrines that would enable lower courts to distinguish takings from punishment consistent with reasonable regulation. This paper suggests general guidelines for developing such doctrines.
Download or read book Punitive Damages written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distributed to some depository libraries in microfiche.
Download or read book Punitive Damages in the United States written by Hannu Honka and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of Punitive Damages After State Farm V Campbell written by Sheila L. Birnbaum and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Punitive Damages Due Process written by Matthew Jeremiah Tippets and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constitutional Challenges to Punitive Damages After BMW V Gore written by Theodore B. Olson and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
