The jury awarded the full economic damages, $250,000 in noneconomic damages and $10,000,000 in punitive damages. After hearing post-trial motions, the trial court concluded the maximum constitutionally permissible ratio of compensatory damages to punitive damages was nine times the actual damages the jury awarded. The $10,000,000 punitive damages award was reduced to $2,660,373.54. Both sides appealed.
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Oregon’s Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s ruling. It extensively examined the factual record as applied to its case law concerning the difficult task of assessing when a punitive damages award is constitutionally problematic. Ultimately, it concluded the tenant had not met his burden to allow the original $10,000,000 award and its 33:1 ratio to stand. The 33:1 ratio “is dramatically greater than the single-digit ratio that the [United States] Supreme Court has suggested is – except in extraordinary circumstances – the limit of what due process will permit, no matter what the tort.”
The court reiterated that determining the proper ratio is not a simple mathematical exercise and other ratios might be proper in other cases. “Although we do not rule out the possibility that some amount greater than (or less than) a 9:1 ratio might be the maximum constitutionally permitted award in a case like this,” it was a constitutionally permissible ratio here.