Dear Tx/Up!: Any tips for National Safe Boating Month? Val, Dumas, Tx.
Dear Val: Don’t light a match near the ocean. Tx/Up!
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Texas Supreme Court Reverses Humongous Punitive Damages Award Against Cattle Rustler: The principal issues in this dispute over cattle owned by one rancher and rustled by another are (1) whether $1.25 million in punitive damages violates due process when actual damages were $5,300 and (2) whether agency principles support punitive damages against a corporation for its president’s acts. In this case Reynolds sued Bennett and Bonham Corp. for conversion, alleging Bennett sold Reynolds’ cattle found on the corporation’s land. Bennett’s daughters own the corporation. Bennett, the president but not a shareholder, lives on the corporate property and runs his own cattle on it without charge. The court of appeals affirmed the punitive damages award.
The Supreme Court reversed, holding that (1) punitive damages were justified but the amount (a combined 235-to-1 ratio to actual damages) violated due process and (2) the corporation was liable for exemplary damages because Bennett, as a corporate vice-principal, authorized and approved his own act of converting the cattle, satisfying Civil Practices and Remedies Code section 41.005(c)(1)’s allowance for such damages if the corporation authorized doing and manner of the tort. The case was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings. Bennett v Reynolds (Tex. June 25, 2010).