Section 2.28 Punitive Damages

• Library: Tort Law 2016

B. (§2.28) Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are often submissible and recoverable in assault and battery cases. Generally, "[p]unitive damages are appropriate only where the conduct of defendant is outrageous because of defendant’s evil motive or reckless indifference to the rights of others." Carpenter v. Chrysler Corp., 853 S.W.2d 346, 364 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993).

That punitive damages are appropriate in some cases of assault and battery is beyond cavil. "Like battery, assault frequently arises out of the worst intentions, and in such cases is an appropriate tort for punitive damages, which are not allowed, however, where it is committed because of [an] innocent mistake."

Burnett v. Griffith, 769 S.W.2d 780, 787–88 (Mo. banc 1989) (quoting W. PROSSER & W. KEETON, PROSSER AND KEETON ON TORTS ch. 2, §§ 2, 10, 43 (1984)).

In Van Eaton v. Thon, 764 S.W.2d 674, 677 (Mo. App. W.D. 1988), the court held that evidence that the defendant threatened to shoot the...