The latest on Tennessee punitive damages.

October 14, 2008 by Zale.

Punitive damages are those that punish another party for fraudulent, intentional, reckless or malicious behavior.  Recently plaintiff Mohr received a verdict over $53M for the deaths of his family members as a result of a motor vehicle accident.  However, he, as the administrator of the estates of the deceased, will not be able to collect all of that.

The courts don’t like, what they consider, excessive punitive damage awards.  Ever since State Farm v. Campbell, the court likes to keep punitive damage awards under 9 times the compensatory damage award.

In Mr. Mohr’s instance, the Tennessee Court of Appeals said that a 4 times multiplier would be sufficient under the U.S. Constitution, so he loses $13.8M.  At the end of the day, Mohr’s attorneys did a good job of finding the issues with the design of the Mohr’s vehicle and enabling the estate to collect more than it would have, had this just been your average car wreck.  However, had Chrysler taken better care of designing the Caravan in question, maybe Mr. Mohr would not have had to fight this battle in court, and maybe he would still have his loved ones.

In case you want to read the whole case, here it is.

If you have lost a family member due to an automobile accident in Tennessee, contact our office to discuss your case.  Fatalities are never easy or comfortable to deal with, but after being an insurance adjuster for over 11 years,  I’ve dealt with many of them.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law | 1 Comment »