Law360 covers Supreme Court granting a hearing on punitive damages
On December 11, The Supreme Court of California granted plaintiff’s petition in Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Insurance.
The jury in the case awarded Nickerson $19 million in punitive damages on $35,000 in bad-faith damages after it was found that defendant Stonebridge Life Insurance Company acted fraudulently in denying Nickerson coverage for most of a 109-day hospital stay. The trial court cut the award to $350,000, or ten times the compensatory award. The California Court of Appeal upheld the reduced amount despite agreeing with the trial court that the amount of punitive damages was insufficient as a deterrent to Stonebridge’s conduct.
Law360 covered the development, and you can read the article by clicking here (subscription required).