CHAPTER 18 DEFENSES TO CLAIMS OF PUNITIVE DAMAGES

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2018

Punitive damages, because they are a form of damages rather than a cause of action, do not fit with any true affirmative defenses. Rather, the most effective defense to a claim seeking punitive damages is to defend the basic lawsuit by a motion to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment, or defense verdict. If the basic lawsuit is defeated there are no damages awarded against the defendant and certainly not punitive damages.

Although only a few courts have addressed the topic, there is a compelling conceptual argument that the statute of limitations for punitive damages should run from the date of the conduct for which punishment is sought, not the date of injury or discovery of injury, as would be the case for the underlying compensatory or remedial claims. The basic idea is that the penal nature of punitive damages makes it appropriate to apply limitations principles [from criminal law], under which the statute of limitations normally runs from commission of the wrongful act. ¹

Of course, there is a wide difference between compensatory and punitive damages. Compensatory damages are "designed to redress the concrete loss that the plaintiff has suffered by reason of the defendant's wrongful conduct," while punitive damages are considered to be "quasi-criminal [that] operate as private fines intended to punish the defendant and to deter future wrongdoing."²

In short, even when a plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages for injuries that either occurred or continued within the limitations period or that only recently manifested, there is a good argument that punitive damages are time-barred insofar as the conduct that caused the injuries occurred outside the statute of limitations. ³

When defending a lawsuit, the answer filed by the defendant should include all appropriate affirmative defenses that the facts of the case and local law allow, as a defense to the allegations of the complaint and its assertion of a need for the court to assess punitive damages against the defendant.

Affirmative Defenses

The following are some affirmative defenses available to defense counsel when defending against a claim of punitive damages:⁴

• That the Plaintiff is guilty of the Doctrine of Unclean Hands and is entitled to no relief whatsoever.

• Punitive damages must not be awarded unless Plaintiff proves his case beyond a reasonable doubt in the determination of a unanimous jury [depending on the jurisdiction].

• Punitive damages must not be awarded unless Plaintiff proves his case by clear and convincing evidence [depending on the jurisdiction].

• The prayer for punitive damages seeks to impose an excessive fine within the meaning of the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

• Any award of punitive damages to the Plaintiff in this case would violate the procedural and/or substantive safeguards

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