Monday, August 27, 2007
The Legal Intelligencer (via Law.com) reports that the Third Circuit appears to be adhering strictly to the Supreme Court's admonition regarding single-digit ratios. Reducing a punitive damages award to a 7:1 ratio between punitive damages and compensatory damages, the Third Circuit stated:
"Heeding the Supreme Court's admonition that few awards exceeding the single-digit threshold will satisfy due process, we conclude that the 18:1 ratio in this case crosses the line into constitutional impropriety," U.S. Circuit Judge Kent A. Jordan wrote in CGB Occupational Therapy Inc. v. RHA/Pennsylvania Nursing Homes Inc.
The trial judge had reduced the jury's $30 million punitive award to $2 million - a 19:1 ratio - finding the reduced amount "is not constitutionally excessive given the facts of this case -- including the wealth of [the] defendant and the state's interest in punishment and deterrence."
The Third Circuit, however, disagreed, and further reduced the award to $750,000.
Has the Supreme Court created a presumptive constitutional ceiling at a 9:1 ratio? (Interested in this topic? Come to the punitive damages symposium next week here in Charleston. Registration is still open.).
(Thanks to Tony Sebok for the tip).