Cite as: 532 U. S. 424 (2001)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
Court of Appeals should defer to the District Court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous." Ante, at 440, n. 14.2
The Court recognizes that district courts have the edge on the first Gore factor, ante, at 440, but goes on to say that "[t]rial courts and appellate courts seem equally capable of analyzing the second [Gore] factor" (i. e., whether punitive damages bear a reasonable relationship to the actual harm inflicted), ibid. Only "the third Gore criterion [i. e., intrajurisdictional and interjurisdictional comparisons] . . . seems more suited to the expertise of appellate courts." Ibid.
To the extent the second factor requires a determination of "the actual harm inflicted on the plaintiff," Gore, 517 U. S., at 580, district courts may be better positioned to conduct the inquiry, especially in cases of intangible injury. I can demur to the Court's assessment of relative institutional strengths, however, for even accepting that assessment, I would disagree with the Court's conclusion that "[c]onsiderations of institutional competence . . . fail to tip the balance in favor of deferential appellate review," ante, at 440. Gore itself assigned particular importance to the first inquiry, characterizing "degree of reprehensibility" as "[p]erhaps the most important indicium of the reasonableness of a punitive damages award." 517 U. S., at 575. District courts, as just noted, supra, at 448 and this page, have a superior vantage over courts of appeals in conducting that fact-intensive inquiry. Therefore, in the typical case envisioned by Gore, where reasonableness is primarily tied to reprehensibility, an appellate court should have infrequent occasion to reverse.
This observation, I readily acknowledge, suggests that the practical difference between the Court's approach and
2 An appellate court might be at a loss to accord such deference to jury findings of fact absent trial court employment of either a special verdict or a general verdict accompanied by written interrogatories. See Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 49.
449
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