-
ATTORNEY: CAPPING DAMAGES IN LAWSUITS OPENS DOOR TO MISDEEDS
Canton Repository
Friday, April 23, 2004
COLUMBUS ... A Canton trial attorney blasted a proposal to limit punitive damages in lawsuits as "a radical and dangerous departure" from hundreds of years of court history.
Addressing members of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Allen Schulman used a video showing the January 2000 accident that killed David Courtney, 37, at Albex Aluminum in Plain Township. It illustrated, he said, the effect that capping punitive damages would have.
Courtney's family settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, but under the provisions of Senate Bill 80, they would have received $100,000, he said. A second worker from Tuscarawas County, Roger Lee Dickey, died at the same plant eight months later. The plant closed a year later, a move the company said was tied to the economy, not the deaths.
"That's the face of this bill," Schulman said. "The floodgate will be open to outrageous conduct and terrible deeds."
Schulman was the only witness to testify before the committee, which is holding hearings on tort reform legislation. The committee is chaired by Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-Plain Township. He and Schulman called each other "good friends."
Oelslager has scheduled a lengthy hearing process over several months to examine aspects of Senate Bill 80. He has been criticized that he was not moving fast enough to get the bill into law.
The legislation, introduced by Sen. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, in May 2003 and passed by the Senate a month later, would limit lawsuits, attorney fees and jury awards. Last month, proponents of the bill got a chance to make their case about punitive damages. Proponents and opponents will each get another opportunity over the next two weeks.
Schulman said backers of tort reform are taking a "Chicken Little" approach.
"Surely, you know that the sky is not falling even though the Chicken Littles tell you so," he said.
"Although rarely granted, the threat of punitive damages to a wide-ranging group of potential offenders acts as a deterrent against societal harm," he said, adding that there is no evidence that a crisis exists in high damage awards.
"In Ohio, punitive damages are extraordinarily rare," Schulman said, citing a study by Jury Verdict Research.
He also called the bill a "gratuitous attack on our judiciary" because it would take the power to determine damages away from juries and judges.
"The system works," he said.
Schulman also criticized the bill's definition of a small employer as having up to 500 full-time employees. He said that would cover 99.7 percent of the companies in Ohio.
"Thus, no matter how egregious the conduct or how catastrophic the harm, the small employers gets a pass," he said. "The risk of unpredictable punitive damages not only serves as a deterrent, but it keeps ethical companies at a competitive advantage."
Rep. John R. Willamowski, R-Lima, and a member of the committee, said after the hearing that changes need to be made in the bill to reflect a company's wealth instead of its size to determine how damages are awarded.
"We need to be really careful and think about this bill," he said.
Schulman said the bill's grant of immunity from punitive damages as long as a company's product meets government-approved procedures, specifications and regulations is problematic, too. He said the government sets standards based on producers' minimum specifications and does not investigate product problems.
After the hearing, Ty Pine, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, disagreed with Schulman's testimony. He said even if only a few cases result in punitive damages, each one "raises the bar" for the next case. Pine described punitive damages as a "system of extortion used to increase awards" and a "death sentence to small business."
He said the definition of small business used in the bill follows that of the federal Small Business Administration.
-
