Editorial: Asleep at the bench in Alabama.(Opinions)(Editorial)

Business Insurance, November, 2003

SOMETIMES PEOPLE just don't pay attention. That's true even when the Supreme Court is doing the talking. Such selective attention is the only charitable explanation we can imagine for an Alabama jury's decision a few days ago to slap a punitive damage award more than 180 times the underlying compensatory damage award on a corporate defendant.

As we report on page 3, the case involved an ongoing dispute over the payment of natural gas royalties. The jury said that Exxon Mobil Corp. had been willfully shorting the state of Alabama in its payment of royalties-a charge Exxon Mobil denies. That a jury in such a case would order the defendant to pay compensatory damages is reasonable enough. That it would order the defendant to pay better than 180 times those...

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