punitive damages
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 224 U.S. 270 - Standard Oil Company of Indiana v. State of Missouri · 1912Most cited · 252 citing opinions
when allowed
where the defendant has acted wantonly or perversely, or with such malice as implies a spirit of mischief or criminal indifference to civil obligations, damages may, in some jurisdictions, be assessed, even in civil cases, by way of punishment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “punitive damages”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “punitive damages” — 481 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1912–1956
By definition, punitive damages are based upon the degree of the defendant's culpability.