The United States Supreme Court denied cert in Flax v. DaimlerChrysler Corporation, the products liability, punitive damages, and negligent infliction of the emotional distress case decided by the Tennessee Supreme Court last year. Here is my post from last July on the decision by the Tennessee court.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that a jury may consider a defendant’s three convictions for drunk driving in deciding the punitive damages issue in a personal injury case arising out of yet another drunk driving episode.
The opinion has great language about why the evidence of the prior convictions is probative.
The opinion is Yeakley v. Doss, 06-851 (Ark. S.C. May 31, 2007). Read the opinion here.
The Supreme Court has fiddled with the law of punitive damages again. More on this is in a later post.
The SCOTUS hears another punitive damage case today. Here is my earlier post on the Williams v. Phillip Morris case out of Oregon.
Law.Com summarizes it this way: "The case asks the high court to review the punitive damages award for excessiveness. It also asks the justices to set forth clearly how judges and juries that are considering punitive damages are to weigh harm caused by the defendant’s conduct to other smokers who were not parties to the suit." Read the whole article here.
You will be able to get a transcript of the argument tomorrow evening at this site.
Day on Torts