Vol. 6, No. 6, Pg. 41. DOUBLE RECOVERY OF PUNITIVE AND OTHER EXEMPLARY DAMAGES.

• Author: By William S. Brown

South Carolina Lawyer

1995.

Vol. 6, No. 6, Pg. 41.

DOUBLE RECOVERY OF PUNITIVE AND OTHER EXEMPLARY DAMAGES

41DOUBLE RECOVERY OF PUNITIVE AND OTHER EXEMPLARY DAMAGESBy William S. BrownThrough the years, trial lawyers have spent countless hours of meditation, deliberation or reflection on the subject of punitive damages. Defense lawyers desperately seek ways to avoid awards of punitive damages. Plaintiffs' lawyers search for a method to ensure such awards. Even with all of this contemplation, however, it is only in the last few years that judicial attention has focused on and attempted to clarify the correlation between traditional punitive damages and other exemplary damages, such as statutory multiple damages. A body of South Carolina law is now emerging that defines whether a party can recover more than one award of exemplary damages in a single action and under what circumstances.

GENERAL PRACTICE OF PUNITIVE DAMAGES

Exemplary or punitive damages are awarded under certain circumstances, in addition to compensatory or actual damages, as a punishment to the defendant and a warning to other wrongdoers. Statutory multiple damages meetthese requirements. They are awarded in addition to actual damages and are considered by South Carolina law to be punitive in nature. Inman v. Imperial Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 303 S.C. 10, 397 S.E.2d 774, 775 n.1 (Ct. App. 1990); F.P. Hubbard & R.L. Felix, The South Carolina Law of Torts, Chapter 8, § E-4 at p. 510 (1990).

DOUBLE RECOVERY?

For well over 150 years, South Carolina courts have recognized the principle that a party may obtain only one satisfaction or recovery of

42actual damages for a single injury or wrong. In spite of this, a rule of law on the recovery of more than one award of exemplary damages was not stated until the last few years.

A growing body of South Carolina law now provides a basic rule that a party cannot recover both statutory multiple damages and punitive damages for a single wrong. See, e.g., Adamson v. Marianne Fabrics, Inc., 301 S.C. 204, 391 S.E.2d 249 (1990); Inman v. Imperial Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc., 303 S.C. 10, 397 S.E.2d 774 (Ct. App. 1990); Smith v. Strickland, S.C.__ , 442 S.E.2d 207 (Ct. App. 1994). The jury in Adamson returned a verdict of actual damages and punitive damages. The trial court trebled the actual damages and allowed the recovery of the punitive damages. The Supreme Court found that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover both punitive and treble damages. The Court stated...