scholarly journals Punishing Tobacco Industry Misconduct: The Case for Exceeding a Single Digit Ratio Between Punitive and Compensatory Damages

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara D. Guardino ◽  
Richard A. Daynard
Keyword(s):  
Digit Ratio ◽  
Punitive Damages ◽  
State Farm ◽  
Single Digit ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Philip Morris ◽  
Compensatory Damages ◽  
Appeals Court ◽  
Smoking And Health

In State Farm v. Campbell, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that “few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages” will be constitutional. Several appeals courts have mistaken this language to be a strict mandate prohibiting punitive damages awards in excess of nine times the compensatory damages amount. This trend, however, may be changing. For example, in one recent smoking and health case brought against Philip Morris, an Oregon appeals court allowed a punitive damages award that was almost 97 times the compensatory damages award. This decision was based on the court’s finding that Philip Morris “used fraudulent means to continue a highly profitable business knowing that, as a result, it would cause death and injury to large numbers of Oregonians.” This article proposes that such wrongdoing (or, “primary” reprehensibility) justifies high punitive damages awards in the context of smoking and health litigation.

The Influence of Structural Aspects of the English Counting Word System on the Teaching and Learning of Place Value

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Place Value ◽  
Single Digit ◽  
Value System ◽  
Number Words ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Structural Aspects

The influence of structural aspects of the English counting word system on the teaching and learning of place value In their discussion of the teaching of place value to young children Fuson and Briars (1990) describe the extent to which the English spoken system of number words constitutes a ‘named value’ system for large numbers. They argue that, because two-digit numbers are not ‘named value’, teachers should move from teaching single-digit calculations to teaching calculations with large numbers, only returning to two-digit numbers when children are familiar with the standard written algorithms. This article uses transcriptions of children calculating mentally to suggest that they appear to take advantage of the ‘partitionable’ aspect of the language associated with two-digit numbers - an aspect that Fuson and Briars (1990) appear to have ignored. These examples appear to raise questions about their recommendation that teachers should progress from single-digit to large number calculations.

An Examination of the Legal Liability Associated with Outsourcing and Offshoring Audit Procedures

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Lyubimov ◽  
Vicky Arnold ◽  
Steve G. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Professional Services ◽  
Punitive Damages ◽  
Litigation Risk ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Audit Failure ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Compensatory Damages ◽  
Organizational Distance ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Main Effects

SUMMARY: Accounting firms have steadily increased the use of outsourcing and offshoring of professional services including independent audit procedures. While firms suggest that the work is of higher quality and similar litigation risk, questions remain as to whether public perceptions may be more negative. This paper examines liability associated with an audit failure when work is performed by another office of the same firm or outsourced to a separate firm, and whether the work is performed domestically or in another country. Results indicate main effects for outsourcing on compensatory damages and an interaction between outsourcing and offshoring on punitive damages. Surprisingly, jurors assess higher than expected litigation awards for a failure by another domestic office of the firm for punitive damages. This result suggests that the close proximity in terms of both geography and organizational distance of the domestic office of the firm leads jurors to find the audit failure less understandable. Post hoc analyses indicate that potential jurors perceive that work completed by another domestic office of the firm has the highest expected quality and lowest risk, while work that is outsourced offshore is expected to be lowest quality and highest risk—consistent with proximity theory.

A UNIVERSITY AND FOUR SCIENTISTS MUST PAY FOR PILFERED WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-264
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Misconduct ◽  
Scientific Journal ◽  
Punitive Damages ◽  
University Of Alabama ◽  
Federal Grants ◽  
False Claims Act ◽  
The Government ◽  
Civil War Era ◽  
Compensatory Damages ◽  
The University

A Federal judge in Baltimore today ordered the University of Alabama and four of its scientists to pay the Government and a researcher a total of $1.9 million for stealing her work and using it as their own to obtain Federal grants. The case, decided by a jury, was unusual because the researcher, Dr Pamela A. Berge, an epidemiologist who now works for Pfizer Inc, had gone to court under the Federal False Claims Act, a Civil War-era statute rarely used in cases involving scientific misconduct. ...Officials at Alabama, speaking for the university and the four scientists, said in a statement that the verdict was "not consistent with or supported by the evidence" and would likely be appealed. The jury found that each of the scientists had individually committed malicious acts of fraud against Dr Berge by claiming her work as his own, by using it to gain grants, and by publishing it in a scientific journal without crediting her. The university was held liable for aiding the fraud. The jury said the Government had been harmed by the fraudulent claims in applications for grants. The university was ordered to pay $1.66 million, of which Dr Berge's share would be $498 000 and the remainder the Federal Government's. The scientists—Drs Robert F. Pass, Sergio B. Stagno, Charles Alford, and Karen B. Fowler—were ordered to pay collectively $50 000 in compensatory damages to Dr Berge and $215 000 in punitive damages.

16. Damages for Personal Injury

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lunney ◽  
Donal Nolan ◽  
Ken Oliphant
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Personal Injury ◽  
Punitive Damages ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Compensatory Damages

The tortious infliction of injury to another person is remedied through the award of damages. This chapter discusses the different types of damages (compensatory damages, restitutionary damages, exemplary or punitive damages, aggravated damages, nominal damages, and contemptuous damages); lump sums and periodical payments; and damages for personal injury (non-pecuniary losses, loss of earnings, medical care, and deductions).

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