Oops.
An appellate victory backfired Wednesday when a federal jury awarded $30 million in punitive damages in the retrial of a case where the first jury had awarded just $1.3 million.
The first trial of CGB Occupational Therapy Inc. v. RHA/Pennsylvania Nursing Homes Inc., in November 2002, ended with a verdict of nearly $2 million -- $685,000 in compensatory damages and $1.3 million in punitives.
But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned part of the verdict in February 2004, reducing the compensatory award to $109,000 and ordering a new trial limited to the issue of punitive damages.
Now a second jury has again found that the plaintiff is entitled to punitive damages and awarded $30 million.
I hate it when that happens. Details here from The Legal Intelligencer via Law.com.