4420 An airplane dealer's fraud repeated over a number of transactions and consisting of secretly inflating the price of airplanes it was purchasing on behalf of its client and keeping the difference between the actual price and the inflated price reported to the client was sufficiently reprehensible to merit an award of punitive damages, but because the harm was solely economic, did not involve a vulnerable victim, and was compensated by a substantial award of $6.5 million in compensatory damages, an award of punitive damages in excess of that amount (i.e., higher than a one to one ratio) was found to be excessive and in violation of due process.CitationJET v DOHERTY (Crooked Dealers) 148 CA4 1 [See: State Farm v Campbell 538 US 408, T/AT 7/03; Simon v San Paolo 35 C4 1159, T/AT 7/05]
|
|