Fowler v. Mantooth
| Decision Date | 20 December 1984 |
| Docket Number | SC-655-DG |
| Citation | 683 S.W.2d 250 |
| Parties | Daniel G. FOWLER, Movant, v. Billy Joe MANTOOTH, Respondent. 83- |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Thomas W. Miller, Miller, Griffin & Marks, PSC, Lexington, for movant.
John R. Cook, Jr., Lexington, for respondent.
Daniel G. Fowler sued Billy Joe Mantooth for assault, seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, claiming he was intentionally struck and injured at the "Sin The Sports Center" in Lexington, Kentucky, on April 7, 1981. The Sports Center is a health club owned by Sin The, where Fowler was employed. Mantooth was a customer. Both are ex-football players, persons of exceptional size and strength.
According to Fowler and his witnesses he was knocked unconscious by a sudden, unexpected punch, thrown without provocation. There had been a disagreement over the customer's use of certain equipment, but Fowler was merely doing his job and had made no abusive remarks or threatening gestures before the attack.
Fowler's testimony was that he was unconscious for more than an hour, needed hospital and medical attention, suffered from a sore jaw, headaches and numbness, and lost time from his employment. Because of the circumstances of his employment, he was particularly humiliated by the experience.
On the other hand Mantooth's testimony was that he was provoked into throwing the punch.
The jury accepted Fowler's version, found for the plaintiff, and awarded $2,210 in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages.
Mantooth appealed claiming both awards were excessive. The Court of Appeals held that the $2,210 for compensatory damages was not excessive, but reversed the $20,000 award for punitive damages as excessive, and ordered a new trial on punitive damages alone. The Court of Appeals took the view that this was a "single blow with practically no injury," although the plaintiff's evidence indicated that the injury could be considered substantial, and the Court of Appeals found that the $2,210 award for compensatory damages "was well within" the evidence. Our analysis of principles set out in Kentucky cases regarding the nature and extent of punitive damages leads to the conclusion that Fowler's evidence is sufficient to support the jury's findings that punitive damages were appropriate, and that the amount awarded was not excessive.
The principles governing when punitive damages should be permitted and what should be the limitations on the award have proved somewhat elusive and difficult to define. This is because the misconduct involved cuts across the spectrum of tort litigation, rather than being restricted to one type of tort, or one type of injury.
It is a rule of longstanding in this Commonwealth that exemplary or punitive damages may be recovered in an assault and battery case in addition to punitive damages where the assault is willful, malicious and without justification. Shields Adm'rs v. Rowland, 151 Ky. 136, 151 S.W. 408 (1912). This is true even when no serious bodily harm results. Watts v. Lingenfelton, 10 Ky.Op. 535 (1880).
The threshold for the award of punitive damages is misconduct involving something more than merely commission of the tort. The "something more" necessary in the present case was defined in the instructions as a finding "that the assault was willful, malicious, and without justification." Malice may be implied from outrageous conduct, and need not be express so long as the conduct is sufficient to evidence conscious wrongdoing. Hensley v. Paul Miller Ford, Inc., Ky., 508 S.W.2d 759 (1974). Hensley cites Prosser, Law of Torts § 2 (4th Ed.1971), stating that punitive damages are "permitted" "[w]here the defendant's wrongdoing has been intentional and deliberate, and has the character of outrage." Id. at 762.
The mere fact that the act is intentional and a tort does not justify punitive damages absent this additional element of implied malice, meaning conscious wrongdoing. Harrod v. Fraley, Ky., 289 S.W.2d 203 (1956); Ashland Dry Goods Co. v. Wages, 302 Ky. 577, 195 S.W.2d 312 (1946). Fowler's evidence in the present case, if accepted by the jury (as it was), substantiated the element of conscious wrongdoing. The distinction is best illustrated by Harrod v. Fraley, supra at 205, where instructions permitting an award of punitive damages if the jury "found that the alleged assault was committed 'wrongfully' [i.e., tortiously]," were held erroneous because they did not further "require the jury to find that the assault was maliciously, wantonly or wilfully committed" before awarding punitive damages. The instructions in the present case required such a finding.
Facts must be established that, apart from punitive damages, are sufficient to maintain a cause of action, but although the appropriate award for compensatory damages would be only nominal, nominal damages support an award for punitive damages. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 908 (1977). Section 908 of the Restatement sets out the elements to be "properly" considered by "the trier of fact" in assessing punitive damages as including "the character of the defendant's act, [as well as] the nature and the extent of the harm to the plaintiff that the defendant caused or intended to cause." 1 (Emphasis added).
Thus we recognize two elements involved in assessing punitive damages: (1) the nature and extent of the harm to the plaintiff, and (2) the character of the defendant's act. In the present case the Court of Appeals decided that "[a] single blow with practically no injury resulting, however wrong the blow may have been, cannot, we believe, result in a $20,000.00 award [for punitive damages] in absence of passion and prejudice on the part of the jury." This overlooks that the character of the act is a consideration of equal or greater importance, depending on the case, in assessing punitive damages. The factors bearing on the character of the act include the degree of outrageousness, the extent of culpability, the motives of the wrongdoer, the relationship between the parties and the existence or absence of provocation. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 908 comment e (1977). To relate excessiveness of the award only in terms of its reasonable relation to the injury sustained, is to tell only half the story.
In this case the Court of Appeals' conclusion that there was "practically no injury resulting" is fact finding inconsistent with the claimant's evidence and inconsistent with its own conclusion that the $2,210 awarded for compensatory damages was "well within" the evidence. But the fatal flaw is that this analysis leaves out of consideration the character of the act.
Respondent's brief, citing no authority, argues that the consideration of punitive damages "does not include humiliation." If, as respondent argues, the sole consideration was the "seriousness of the injury," such might be true because this view of punitive damages limits it to an extension or enhancement of compensatory damages, which, arguably, do not include humiliation per se. But in an act of this character the...
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