Product Liability -- 2003



Ford Motor Co. v. Romo   (U.S. Supreme Court)

Punitive damages

(S. Ct., petitions for cert.) -- The NAM joined with 11 other business groups 4/4/03 seeking review of two multimillion dollar punitive damages awards. We argued that the Court needs to provide clear guidance on the standards for punitive damages in product liability cases: (1) when are design decisions sufficiently reprehensible to warrant a punitive sanction, (2) what ratio of punitive damages to actual damages is appropriate (63 to 1 in Romo and 5 to 1 in Smith), (3) how should punitive damages relate to comparable criminal conduct, and (4) what about other juries that exonerate or also punish defendants for the same design decisions. These appeals were be affected by the Court's landmark punitive damages decision in State Farm v. Campbell on 4/8/03, and were vacated and sent back for further proceedings. The California Court of Appeal reduced the Romo award from $290 million to $24 million on 11/25/03. See also Ford Motor Co. v. Smith