216 W. Va. 552 - Boyd v. Goffoli’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he outer limit of the ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages in cases in which the defendant has acted with extreme negligence or wanton disregard but with no actual intention to cause harm and in which compensatory damages are neither negligible nor very large is roughly 5 to 1. However, when the defendant has acted with actual evil intention, much higher ratios are not per se unconstitutional.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Perrine v. E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. · 225 W. Va. 482 - Perrine v. EI DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND CO.

2. “[ljawful out-of-state conduct may be probative when it demonstrates the deliberateness and culpability of the defendant’s action in the State where it is tortious, but that conduct must have a nexus to the specific harm suffered by the plaintiff. A jury must be instructed, furthermore, that it may not use evidence of out-of-state conduct to punish a defendant for action that was lawful in the jurisdiction where it occurred.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Perrine v. E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co.

3. “[a] defendant's dissimilar acts, independent from the acts upon which you based your previous findings of liability, may not serve as the basis for punitive damages.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 225 W. Va. 482 - Perrine v. EI DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND CO.