450
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
my own is not large. An abuse-of-discretion standard, as I see it, hews more closely to "the strictures of the Seventh Amendment," Browning-Ferris, 492 U. S., at 280, n. 26. The Court's de novo standard is more complex. It requires lower courts to distinguish between ordinary common-law excessiveness and constitutional excessiveness, ante, at 433, and to separate out factfindings that qualify for "clearly erroneous" review, ante, at 440, n. 14. See also ante, at 440, n. 13 (suggesting abuse-of-discretion review might be in order "if a State were to adopt a scheme that tied the award of punitive damages more tightly to the jury's finding of compensatory damages"). The Court's approach will be challenging to administer. Complex as it is, I suspect that approach and mine will yield different outcomes in few cases.
The Ninth Circuit, I conclude, properly identified abuse of discretion as the appropriate standard in reviewing the District Court's determination that the punitive damages awarded against Cooper were not grossly excessive. For the Seventh Amendment and practical reasons stated, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
Page: Index Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27Last modified: October 4, 2007