Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a public entity is not liable for damages awarded under Section 3294 of the Civil Code or other damages imposed primarily for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant.
Cal. Gov. Code § 818
Liability of Public Entities
Known as the Government Claims Act
The act spans §§ 810–998 (301 sections).
Applied in 34 court decisions — leading case 2 Cal. 4th 962 - Aubry v. Tri-City Hospital District (1992)
Most recently applied in 248 Cal. Rptr. 3d 508 - Pearl v. City of L. A. (June 2019)
Added by Stats. 1963, Ch. 1681.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.