Scheuerman on the Relationship Between Punitive Damages & Class Actions

Sheila Scheuerman (Charleston) just posted an article entitled “Two World Collide: How the Supreme Court’s Recent Punitive Damages Jurisprudence Affects Class Actions” on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

This article examines the intersection between two controversial areasof the law – punitive damages and class actions – and argues that theSupreme Court’s recent jurisprudence clarifying the due process limitson punitive damages has broad implications on the procedural lawsgoverning the types of cases that can properly be certified as a classaction. Specifically, the article discusses the Supreme Court’sevolving approach to punitive damages from one that considered the harma defendant’s conduct caused to society as a whole to one that nowfocuses almost exclusively on the harm to the specific individualbringing the lawsuit. This shift, which recently culminated in theCourt’s 2007 decision in Philip Morris USA v. Williams,constitutionally requires that the amount of a punitive damages awardrelate to the amount of harm suffered by the party bringing the suit.That requirement is at odds with class action practices that treatpunitive damages as a common, class-wide issue and that have allowedjuries to assess a punitive damages award before evaluating the harm tothe individual class members. The article argues, therefore, that whereinjuries are not uniform among class members, punitive damages cannotbe pursued as a class-wide remedy.

ADL