Punitive Damages Exceeding Compensatory Damages Held Violation of Due Process

I've been in China for twelve days, completely removed from blogging (and any news other than state-run television and the People's Daily), and have much catching up to do.  With something like 600 posts in my reader, I despair of ever catching up. However, there are a few developments that caught my attention.

The first one appears in Jet Source Charter, Inc. v. Dougherty, where the Court of Appeal held that a $26 million punitive damage award violated the due process requirements of Campbell v. State Farm when the compensatory damage award, including pre-judgment interest, was $6.5 million.  The Court held that the award was impermissibly excessive for just three reasons:  (1)  the compensatory award was already substantial;  (2)  the harm caused was solely economic (this was essentially a breach of fiduciary / fraud case involving business transactions) and (3)  the plaintiff was not a particularly vulnerable victim.

Sean Martin, who manages to blog about nearly every appellate decision in California, sets forth the opposing view here.

Given the amounts involved, I'm betting on a petition to the California Supremes.  And I'm further betting that the decision sticks.