Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are money a jury awards on top of compensation for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. Their purpose is not to make the patient or family whole, but to punish a defendant for especially bad conduct and to deter the company, and others like it, from doing the same thing again. They are also called exemplary damages.

Origin

"Punitive" comes from the Latin punire, meaning "to punish," and "damages" from damnum, meaning "loss." The doctrine traces to 18th-century English common law cases such as Wilkes v. Wood (1763), which allowed juries to award additional sums to mark the court's condemnation of outrageous conduct. American courts adopted the concept early and it has since been shaped by state statutes and U.S. Supreme Court due-process decisions limiting excessive awards.

Significance in Asbestos Context

Punitive damages are often a major issue in asbestos cases because internal company documents (memos, medical studies, and correspondence going back to the 1930s–1970s) frequently show that manufacturers knew asbestos caused disease and chose not to warn workers or consumers. When juries see that evidence, they sometimes award punitive damages that exceed the compensatory award. For a patient or family, this matters in three practical ways: (1) it can substantially increase the total recovery in a verdict case; (2) it is generally available only against solvent defendants in the tort system, not against bankrupt companies paying through asbestos trusts, which do not pay punitives; and (3) the availability, ratio to compensatory damages, and caps vary sharply by state, so where the case is filed can determine whether punitives are even on the table.

Example Sentence

After the jury saw the company's 1948 internal memo warning executives about lung disease in asbestos workers, it returned a verdict that included $4 million in compensatory damages and an additional $10 million in punitive damages.

Related Terms

Compensatory Damages, Gross Negligence, State of the Art Defense, Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust, Failure to Warn

Notes

• Ask your legal team early whether punitive damages are available under the law of the state where your case will be filed, and whether that state caps them (many states limit them to a multiple of compensatory damages or a fixed dollar amount).
• Preserve and provide your attorneys with any employment records, product identifications, and witness contacts. Punitive damages usually depend on proving the specific defendant knew of the hazard, so linking you to a particular company's product strengthens the claim.
• Punitive damages are generally NOT paid by asbestos bankruptcy trusts; they are only realistically recoverable from companies still operating in the tort system, which affects strategy about which defendants to pursue.
• Ask how a punitive award would be taxed in your situation. Unlike most compensatory damages for physical injury, punitive damages are typically taxable as income under federal law.
• If the patient is gravely ill, ask whether the case qualifies for an expedited or "preference" trial setting, because punitive damages claims often do not survive the plaintiff's death in the same form (some states bar punitives in survival actions).