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PUNITIVE DAMAGES CAPPED AT SIX TIMES SPECIALS

While employed as a store director by Ralph's Grocery Company, Roger Misiolek subjected multiple female employees to inappropriate touching, profanity and comments on their sex lives. These employees sued Misiolek and Ralph's and ultimately secured compensatory verdicts against Ralph's totaling $550,000 and punitive awards totaling $30,000,000.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal directed the Trial Court to reduce the punitive awards to six times their respective compensatory damages awards. It noted that an award of punitive damages is not a finding of fact but rather an expression of moral condemnation and, because punitive damages do not compensate plaintiff for actual harm, they must bear a reasonable relationship and be proportionate to compensatory damages.

The United States Supreme Court has outlined three "guide posts" for evaluating the constitutionality of any given punitive damages award: (1) The degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's misconduct; (2) The disparity between the actual harm or potential harm suffered by the plaintiff and the punitive damages award; and (3) The difference between the punitive damages awarded by the jury and the civil penalties authorized or imposed in comparable cases.

In applying the "guide posts" to Ralph's conduct in allowing Misiolek to remain in a position where he could continue harassing the plaintiffs, the Court concluded that a 6 to 1 ratio "is the absolute constitutional maximum that could possibly be awarded under these particular facts."

Gober v. Ralph's Grocery Company
2006 DJDAR 2479

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Related Practice Area(s):
Employment and Labor Law