When an injured victim goes to court after being hurt by someone’s negligence, they typically seek compensatory damages to repay financial expenses, plus pain and suffering. When the defendant’s behavior was found especially heinous or maliciously intentional, plaintiff may qualify for what’s known as exemplary damages.
Exemplary damages are awarded, in addition to compensatory damages, as a punishment for egregious behavior. They are also meant to deter similar wrongdoing by others. Exemplary damages are available in certain cases but have been severely limited by state law and court decisions.
Am I Eligible for Exemplary Damages?
Under Section 41.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, exemplary damages are awarded if a plaintiff proves with clear and convincing evidence that their harm resulted from:
- Fraud
- Malice
- Gross negligence
Exemplary damages may also only be awarded if the jury’s decision was unanimous regarding liability and the amount awarded for the plaintiff’s losses. This, in combination with the clear and convincing evidence standard, makes it difficult to recover exemplary damages in personal injury cases in Texas.
Examples of When Punitive Damages May Be Awarded
Some common examples of when exemplary damages could be warranted include:
- An automobile manufacturer fails to design acceleration features properly on their electric vehicle, which results in multiple instances of injury and property damage when it unexpectedly loses power while the car is at highway speed.
- A construction company knowingly cut corners on equipment and materials, leading to significant safety risks for inhabitants of the business’s poorly built homes. Owners and tenants experienced injuries and property damage when faulty electrical wiring resulted in fires.
While property disputes typically will not qualify for exemplary damages, there are many other kinds of personal injury cases where the victim could seek a punitive award, such as:
- Animal attacks and dog bites
- Commercial truck accidents
- Drunk driving and hit-and-run automotive accidents
- Nursing home neglect and abuse
- Premises liability cases, such as a slip-and-fall
- Product liability claims
- Sexual assault
In some instances, the compensatory damages could be quite high if the victim is left with permanent injuries or disability. This can affect the amount of punitive damages a jury is allowed to award.
What Is Required to Pursue Exemplary Damages?
Even if the injured victim’s life is substantially affected by injuries, their case may not qualify for exemplary damages. For compensatory losses, plaintiff must show that the defendant was negligent by proving the following elements:
- The defendant owed plaintiff and others a duty of care to take reasonable caution.
- The defendant did not uphold this duty.
- Plaintiff suffered injury and loss as a direct result of their failure.
- Plaintiff have financial and non-financial losses related to your injury.
To request exemplary damages, plaintiff must further present evidence demonstrating how the defendant’s actions were grossly negligent, reckless, or intended to cause harm. The court will also examine similar cases in which punitive damages were awarded to guide them on whether to agree to them and for how much. In some instances, the judge may choose to award punitive damages without the plaintiff’s request.
Are Punitive Damages Hard To Get?
Texas has several limitations to exemplary damages. Specifically, they cannot be given if the total damage amount is small or if the plaintiff elects to have their recovery multiplied under another statute. It’s very uncommon for punitive damages to be awarded, according to the most recent reporting by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While up to 12% of plaintiffs seek exemplary damages, they are awarded in only about 5% of cases.
In calculating such exemplary damages as compensation, the jury must consider many factors, including:
- The nature of the wrongdoing, such as whether it was intentional or grossly negligent
- The defendant’s criminal record and activity, if any
- The defendant’s past actions that are justifiably related to the issue at hand
- The likelihood the defendant will continue to engage in wrongful behavior
- The actions the defendant may have taken to remediate the harm or prevent further injury
- The character of the defendant’s actions or inactions
- The degree of culpability the defendant bears
- The details of the situation
- The sensibilities of all parties involved and concerned with the matter
- The extent to which the defendant’s conduct offends a public sense of justice and propriety
- The net worth of the defendant
High Punitive Damage Awards Are Not Always a Good Thing
While a punitive damage award can feel justified when a wrongdoer has harmed many individuals, it does not come without its downsides. For example, extremely high amounts in the tens of millions can quickly be reduced by damages caps imposed under Texas law. Additionally, while compensatory damages are not taxed as income, punitive awards are.
Another potential roadblock to securing an exemplary award is that Texas recently updated its current statute to require that a jury be unanimously in favor of awarding punitive damages. It’s possible for the court to rule in the plaintiff’s favor yet be unable to agree whether the defendant was grossly negligent or intended to cause others harm.
Damages Caps In Texas
In Texas, there are statutory caps on punitive damages in personal injury cases. For instance, an award of exemplary damages may not exceed an amount equal to the greater of:
- Two times the economic damages plus an amount equal to any non-economic damages found by the jury, not to exceed $750,000
- $200,000
In addition, when the defendant is also facing felony charges, there is no cap on punitive damages. These situations include:
- Sexual assault (especially of a minor)
- Murder
- Fraud
- Intoxication manslaughter
- Intoxication assault
When the plaintiff can show at civil trial (not the criminal trial held by the government) that the defendant knowingly and intentionally committed a crime, plaintiff can request or be awarded a higher amount of exemplary damages.
In the event of wrongful death claims, the family can seek punitive damages when they can demonstrate their loved one died as a result of the defendant’s willful malice or gross negligence.
Punitive Damages are Unavailable in Unseaworthiness Cases
When you are injured in a maritime accident, the law gives you multiple avenues for seeking compensation against the shipowner. You can sue them for negligence, as authorized by the Jones Act. Alternatively, you can sue the sue shipowner under the theory of unseaworthiness, which does not require you to prove their negligence. Instead, you need to demonstrate that the ship was unseaworthy, and that its unseaworthiness caused your injuries.
The unseaworthiness of a vessel could manifest itself and injure you in many ways, including:
- Engine malfunction
- Fuel vapor leak
- Lines breaking
- Loose machinery or cargo
- Cluttered deck
- Incompetent crew or captain
- Inadequate anti-slip surfaces and handrails
- Malfunctioning navigation or communications equipment
You’ll notice that the unseaworthiness doctrine doesn’t just concern the ship itself – it concerns the crew and all of the fixtures of the vessel as well. The shipowner has a duty to ensure that the ship, its equipment, and crew meet a minimum standard. They are strictly liable for damages that result from a failure to meet this standard.
Besides not having to prove negligence, another benefit of the unseaworthiness doctrine over the Jones Act is a wider range of available damages. The Jones act has several limits on the amount and type of damages you can recover. But the unseaworthiness allows larger settlements for sailors that encompass more types of damages. Previously this included punitive damages. But now, the Supreme Court has removed this possibility.
The Supreme Court decided that punitive damages were inappropriate in unseaworthiness cases because in its overview of traditional maritime law cases, it found insufficient evidence that punitive damages were a common remedy. Additionally, Congress had the ability to explicitly create a way for sailors to get punitive damages in unseaworthiness cases, yet failed to make any law explicitly authorizing this type of damages. The Supreme Court stated that it was not appropriate to create a new remedy without basis in traditional law, and which Congress decided not to write into legislation.
Next Steps
If you need to discuss punitive damages with an experienced Texas injury attorney, contact us today for a free consultation.
