Timeline for May pre-judgement settlement be considered as compensatory damages for the purposes of punitive damages?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Dec 8, 2021 at 9:58 | comment | added | ohwilleke | @kisspuska Along the same lines, it is common in a case where an agent commits a tort for which the principal has only respondiat superior liability to stipulate to entry of a judgment against the principal in whatever amount is entered against the agent who committed the actual tort by the judge without even informing the jury that the principal is a party in the case. | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 9:53 | comment | added | ohwilleke | @kisspuska No. It wouldn't be a settlement at all. It would be a stipulation as to a finding of fact that would be included in the jury instructions along the line of:"if you agree that there is liability on the part of the defendant, you shall award the plaintiff $750,000 in compensatory damages that reflect the harm that the plaintiff suffered in the accident." Typically liability and punitive damages would still be left to the jury in a full trial with that one stipulated fact. Non-presentation of evidence flows from it is no longer being legally relevant. | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 9:51 | comment | added | kisspuska | If I understand correctly, this is something like, hey, we’ll settle, without admission of liability, for half of what you want, and you can still go for punitive damages, but you need to agree, for e.g., not to present horrid evidence? (And half would be the basis for punitive damages even though the amount is not paid as a result of a verdict but rather as settlement) | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 9:45 | comment | added | ohwilleke | "Could such a stipulated and not full settlement work?" When actual compensatory damages are easily calculated or approximated, but there is dispute over whether punitive damages should be awarded, a stipulation as to the dollar amount of compensatory damages if there is liability at all, isn't uncommon. In a PI case the defense would frequently offer up the stipulation to limit risk at trial & to keep gory evidence of painful physical injuries from being presented to the jury to reduce jury sympathy for a plaintiff on that basis on liability/punitive eligibility & to cut expert witness costs. | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 9:42 | comment | added | ohwilleke | "if a settlement is reached specifically asserting that settling actual damages should not include any settlement of any punitive damages claims should allow that a court still impose them" In theory, sure. In practice, it just never happens that way. The whole point of settling is to end the lawsuit and avoid further litigation costs, almost always with no admission of fault, and to secure subsequent voluntary payment of the amounts owed under the settlement. Punitive damages are often throwaway damages anyway, because often the defendant often won't have an ability to pay them. | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 5:50 | comment | added | kisspuska | Could such a stipulated and not full settlement work? I assume the fact of the settlement would be admissible evidence and the factfinder could encourage the factfinder to use its softer pen in the calculation of the multiplier still. | |
| Dec 8, 2021 at 5:48 | comment | added | kisspuska | I would argue though if a settlement is reached specifically asserting that settling actual damages should not include any settlement of any punitive damages claims should allow that a court still impose them as if the base of the punitive damages multiplied were either the amount of actual damages as settled or as deemed correct by the factfinder, and the settlement be considered in the reprehensibility as a mitigating factor to reduce the multiplier. Since the objective is to deter recidivism and imitation and where applicable, merely paying up what’s due wouldn’t achieve that objective. | |
| Dec 7, 2021 at 23:21 | vote | accept | kisspuska | ||
| Dec 7, 2021 at 20:29 | history | answered | ohwilleke | CC BY-SA 4.0 |