On November 19, 2020, a unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) decided Vectura Ltd. v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC, affirming a $90 million verdict. Vectura Ltd. (“Vectura”) sued...more
King v. U.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 52 Cal. App. 5th 728 (2020) - Timothy King sued his former employer for defamation, wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and...more
In BritNed v ABB, the English Court of Appeal substantially reduced the UK's first award of damages in a so-called cartel damages claim brought for breach of European competition law. In so doing, the Court rejected calls for...more
A recent personal injury verdict in Brooklyn is one of the largest ever awarded to a single plaintiff in New York state. The verdict highlights the utility of two procedural tools available to defendants facing excessive...more
On March 21, 2019, U.S. Magistrate Judge Staci G. Cornelius in the Northern District of Alabama reduced a FCRA plaintiff’s $3 million punitive damages award to less than $500,000. The court held that the multi-million dollar...more
On January 3, 2019, following a jury’s award of $145 million in damages to Wi-LAN, the Southern District of California granted Apple’s motion for a conditional order of remittitur to a $10 million damages award. In granting...more
In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, the Supreme Court strongly implied that in some cases even a 1:1 ratio of punitive to compensatory damages might be too high. In Torres v. B/E Aerospace, Inc., the...more
In Gomez v. Cabatic, 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 00278, the Second Department upheld an award of punitive damages against a physician who was alleged to have destroyed portions of a medical record. The Gomez case involved a claim...more
In Gomez v. Cabatic, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed the imposition of punitive damages in a medical malpractice case based on the defendant’s destruction of documents in an effort to avoid...more
In a case that reads like an episode of “Dallas,” the Texas Supreme Court reiterated the rules for recovery of punitive damages. Bennett v. Grant, No. 15-0338 (April 28, 2017)....more
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the imposition of excessive exemplary damages. Whether an award comports with due process is measured by three guideposts...more
This transcript is the trial court's ruling denying a defendant's motion for new trial and/or remittitur of the verdict amount ($8.35 million, a record in this court) in a medical malpractice case brought for a man whose...more
This brief was filed in successful opposition to a defense motion for new trial or to reduce a large verdict for the plaintiffs in a medical malpractice trial in the District of Columbia in 2017. The brief addresses issues...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The New Jersey employers were dealt an “emotional” blow when the New Jersey Supreme Court, in Cuevas v. Wentworth Group, affirmed a trial court’s denial of an employer’s request for remittitur of the...more
Supreme Court Decision Impacts Potential Emotional Distress Damages - On September 19, 2016, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a jury’s award of $1.4 million in emotional distress damages to two Hispanic brothers who...more
Chief Judge Patti B. Saris of the District of Massachusetts recently issued an order paving the way for the Trustees of Boston University to seek an interlocutory appeal to clarify the Maximum Recovery Rule for remittitur....more
Massachusetts Federal Court Holds Proof of Testing of Proposed Alternative Design Not Required in Design Defect Claim, Evidence Plaintiff Ignored Defendant’s Warnings Did Not Establish He Was Sole Proximate Cause of Injury on...more
The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to address whether a trial court erred in denying remittitur on a whopping $1.4 million award for emotional distress damages in a racial discrimination suit brought under the Law...more
Like Joel Tenenbaum, who has been discussed in prior entries in this blog, Jammie Thomas-Rasset has conducted a long-running battle with the recording industry over how much damages she should pay for her downloading...more