Nast v. Lockett

• Decision Date: 01 September 1987
• Docket Number: No. 91,91
• Citation: 312 Md. 343,539 A.2d 1113
• Parties: , 56 USLW 2595 Edward P. NAST et ux. v. Lois Ann LOCKETT et al. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 343

312 Md. 343

539 A.2d 1113, 56 USLW 2595

Edward P. NAST et ux. v. Lois Ann LOCKETT et al.

No. 91, Sept. Term, 1987.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

April 11, 1988.

Howard J. Schulman, Baltimore, for appellants.

Joseph F. Lavin (Rollins, Smalkin, Richards & Mackie and Robert W. Fox, all on brief), Gertrude C. Bartel (Nancy Felix Mangan and Kramon & Graham, P.A., all on brief), Baltimore, for appellees.

Argued before ELDRIDGE, COLE, RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ADKINS and BLACKWELL, JJ., and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland (retired), Specially Assigned.

CHARLES E. ORTH, Judge, Jr., Specially Assigned.

This appeal revolves around the propriety of submitting to the trier of fact in an automobile accident case the allowance of punitive damages against a drinking driver.

I

Three cars were involved in the accident. One was driven by Lois Ann Lockett, the second by Charles Carroll Houck, and the third by Edward P. Nast. About 8:30 p.m. on 17 February 1984, Lockett was heading south in the southbound lane of York Road near its intersection with Lambourne Road in Baltimore County, Maryland. Nast was about 10 car lengths behind her. Houck was heading north in the right curb northbound lane of York Road, south of the Lockett car. Lockett tried to make a U-turn from the southbound lane of York Road, across the two northbound lanes, so as to be able to proceed north on York Road. She was unable to complete the turn and came to a stop facing the northbound curb. She began to back up so she could complete the turn. Houck continued north without braking or deviating from his course and collided with the right side of Lockett's car. Nast testified that when Lockett started to make her U-turn, Houck's car was about 300 feet away, but another witness, an off duty Baltimore City police officer, who was following Houck, estimated the distance between the Houck and Lockett cars to be 15 or 20 feet when he first observed them before the collision. He said "It had just started to drizzle," and suggested that Houck was unable to stop "due to the wet conditions on the roadway." Houck did not recall the details of the accident. He testified:

[A]ll of a sudden instantly there was an automobile in front of me. I had no alternative. There was nothing I could do. It happened within a second to two seconds. I couldn't get out of the way of that car. I couldn't avoid it.

He did not know where the car he struck came from, in which direction it had been traveling ("the car was coming towards me,") or what part of the car he hit. He vaguely recalled hitting a second car. Houck's car careened off of Lockett's car into the southbound lane of York Road and struck Nast's car. Fortunately there were no fatalities, but there were personal injuries and property damage.

Nast's fiancee, now his wife, was a passenger in his car. They entered suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Lockett and Houck. The trial judge did not permit the matter of punitive damages to go to the jury. The jury awarded compensatory damages to the Nasts against Lockett and Houck. The Nasts appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. We certified the case to us on our own motion before decision by that court. The primary question is whether the trial court erred in keeping the matter of punitive damages from the consideration of the jury.

II

"Compensatory damages are such as will compensate the injured party for the injury sustained, and nothing more; such as will simply make good or replace the loss caused by the wrong or injury." Black's Law Dictionary 352 (5th ed. 1979). In other words, they are "damages awarded to a person as compensation, indemnity, or restitution for harm sustained by him." Id. See McAlister v. Carl, 233 Md. 446, 451-457, 197 A.2d 140 (1964).

Punitive or exemplary damages are damages on an increased scale, awarded not as the measure of actual loss suffered but "as punishment for outrageous conduct and to deter future transgressions." Black at 352. ¹ See First Nat'l Bank v. Fid. & Dep. Co., 283 Md. 228, 232, 389 A.2d 359 (1978); General Motors Corp. v. Piskor, 281 Md. 627, 638, 381 A.2d 16 (1977).

We held in Shell Oil Co. v. Parker, 265 Md. 631, 644, 291 A.2d 64 (1972), that there must be at least a showing of compensable injury, that is, an award of compensatory damages, before a recovery of punitive damages is allowed. ² In other words, to support the allowance of punitive damages, the negligence of the defendant must be established and damages awarded the plaintiff to compensate him for the actual damages incurred by the negligent conduct of the defendant. What we say herein about punitive damages is within that frame of reference.

We start with the generally accepted rule that "punitive damages are not recovered as a matter of right, even though the facts of the case may be such as to make their allowance proper, but rather, that their allowance rests in the sound discretion of the [trier of fact, be it court or jury]." Annot., Intoxication of Automobile Driver as Basis for Awarding Punitive Damages, 65 A.L.R.3d 656, 660-661 (1975). Whether the trier of fact is to be permitted to exercise that discretion is a matter of law for the trial court. In other words, the sufficiency of the evidence to submit the question of punitive damages to the trier of fact is a question of law.

If a court's ruling on any question of law is not right, it is wrong. When a ruling involves the exercise of discretion, the range within which a ruling may be right is equal to the permitted range of discretion. But the law gives no judge or court discretion to make a wrong ruling.

Boyd v. State, 22 Md.App. 539, 323 A.2d 684, Powers, J., dissenting at 554, 323 A.2d at 693, cert. denied, 272 Md. 738 (1974). So the question before us is whether the trial court here was right or wrong in keeping from the jury the matter of the allowance of punitive damages as to Lockett and as to Houck.

The basic rule for the entitlement of punitive or exemplary damages is that there be actual malice. That is,

there must be an element of fraud, or malice, or evil intent, or oppression entering into and forming part of the wrongful act.

Philadelphia, W. & B. R.R. Co. v. Hoeflich, 62 Md. 300, 307, 50 Amer.Rpt. 223 (1884), quoted in Davis v. Gordon, 183 Md. 129, 133, 36 A.2d 699 (1944). The rule held fast in this State until our decision in Smith v. Gray Concrete Pipe Co., 267 Md. 149, 297 A.2d 721 (1972). Until that time we had never approved an award of punitive damages in a motor vehicle case. Id. at 162, 297 A.2d 721. In Smith, however, we fashioned a standard for the allowance of punitive damages in such cases. We looked to the crime of manslaughter by automobile. The statute creating the crime, now codified in Maryland Code (1957, 1987 Repl.Vol.) Art. 27, § 388, provides in pertinent part:

Every person causing the death of another as the result of the driving ... of an automobile ... in a grossly negligent manner, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor to be known as "manslaughter by automobile...."

We observed that our decisions have interpreted this statute "as requiring proof of gross negligence, which has been defined in this context as 'a wanton or reckless disregard for human life.' " 267 Md. at 167, 297 A.2d 721. We said:

We regard a "wanton or reckless disregard for human life" in the operation of a motor vehicle, with the known dangers and risks attendant to such conduct, as the legal equivalent of malice.

Id. at 168, 297 A.2d 721. We considered it to be "a standard which, although stopping just short of wilful or intentional injury, contemplates conduct which is of an extraordinary or outrageous character." Id. But we found that it was "both a functional and definitive test which ... enjoys the virtue of having been frequently applied in this State [in automobile manslaughter cases]." Id. We asserted:

And if, as a test, it has been regarded as adequately stringent to serve as a basis for possible imprisonment, then, surely, there appears to be no valid reason for deeming it too liberal for imposing civil sanctions.

Id. We held "that it is the standard by which claims for exemplary damages arising out of motor vehicle operation are to be tested." Id. We iterated the test in H & R Block, Inc. v. Testerman, 275 Md. 36, 47, 338 A.2d 48 (1975). ³ Thus, the test in a civil automobile accident action for the submission of the award of punitive damages to the trier of fact is the same as the test in a criminal prosecution of manslaughter by automobile for the submission of the question of the guilt of the accused to the trier of fact. In each case, as a matter of law, the evidence must be sufficient (in the former by a preponderance thereof, in the latter beyond a reasonable doubt) to establish that the defendant was grossly negligent, that is, that he had a wanton or reckless disregard for human life in the operation of an automobile. The legal threshold that must be crossed before the trier of fact is given discretion to award punitive damages is a stringent one. It deals with the state of mind of the defendant driver. If the driver intended death or injury, there is actual malice, and punitive damages may be awarded. If it cannot be shown that the driver intended death or injury, but it can be shown that he or she had a reckless lack of concern for whether others might be killed or seriously injured, i.e. had a wanton or reckless disregard for human life, the law considers that to be the equivalent of intending the harm, and punitive damages may be awarded. Only conduct that is of an extraordinary or outrageous character will be sufficient to imply this state of mind, and thus suffice as the legal equivalent of actual malice. Simple negligence will not be sufficient--even reckless driving may not be enough. It is not reckless driving that allows punitive damages; it is the reckless...