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Article: Supreme Court asks states to reform punitive damages laws.
- Article from:
- State Legislatures
- Article date:
- April 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Conference of State Legislatures. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For the fifth time in the past six years, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a punitive damages award.
The case, TXO Production Corp. vs. Alliance Resources Corp. et. al., features a jury award of $19,000 compensatory damages and $10 million punitive damages--a ratio of more than 530 to 1.
The decision to hear this case came as a surprise because the Court had directly addressed the punitive damages issue in March 1991 in Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. vs. Haslip, now commonly known as the Haslip case.
In Haslip, the Court determined that the due process clause of the 14th ...