Punitive damages limits at issue in high court case.(News)(US Supreme Court to hear case involving punitive damages case against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. )

Business Insurance, December, 2002 by Hofmann, Mark A.

Byline: MARK A. HOFMANN WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court has another opportunity to clarify how much is too much where punitive damages are concerned when it hears oral arguments this week in a case dealing with insurance claims-handling practices. The case the justices will hear on Dec. 11-State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

vs. Curtis B. Campbell and Inez Preece Campbell-covers some of the same ground as the high court's 1996 landmark decision in BMW of North America vs. Ira Gore. In that case, which involved an automobile paint job, the court's majority held that a punitive damage award of $2 million over an underlying compensatory award of about $600 was so excessive as to violate the Constitution. The justices declined, though, to provide any...

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