About a month ago, we reported on a Delaware trial court decision reducing a $75 million punitive award to $7.5 million in a transvaginal mesh case. Last week, in what we believe to be the first appellate decision in one of these cases, the Fourth Circuit upheld a verdict of $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1.75 million in punitive damages.
The decision in Cisson v. C.R. Bard, Inc. implicates a number of issues that may arise with some frequency in punitive damages cases.
Continue Reading Fourth Circuit Upholds $1.75 Million Punitive Damages Award In Transvaginal Mesh Case
Bucking this trend, Wright Medical Technology and Wright Medical Group, the defendants in multidistrict litigation alleging defects in their hip implants, have developed evidence designed to persuade juries that large punitive awards would be unnecessary and counterproductive. In particular, the Wright Medical defendants have developed evidence about the various deleterious effects that a large punitive award might have. They also have developed evidence relating to their good “corporate character.”