§ 18-11 Fraud - Punitive Damages

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 18-11 Fraud - Punitive Damages

In this case, the plaintiff also asks for punitive damages.

In an action for fraud, punitive damages are warranted where the defendant knows the representation to be false, or where a false representation is recklessly made, as a positive assertion, without knowing or caring whether it is true or false. In the latter instance, liability for punitive damages is dependent upon whether the defendant was conscious or chargeable with consciousness of his wrongdoing.

The recovery of punitive damages is not limited to cases where the false representations were actually known to be false at the time of the making of the representations. That is to say, knowledge by the...