Arkansas Supreme Court strikes down statutory cap on exemplary damages, upholding $42 million award
Bayer CropScience LP v. Schafer (Ark. Dec. 8, 2011)
Opinion by Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson
Exemplary damages were on top of $6 million in compensatory damages, for the defendant’s negligent contamination of the domestic rice supply with its genetically modified strains, harming the marketability of plaintiffs’ crops. The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the $42 million award without deciding defendants’ excessiveness arguments (which it found waived because they were not included in the notice of appeal).
John Paul Byrd, Scott A. Powell, Don McKenna, and Bruce J. McKee for plaintiffs.
Gordon Smeade Rather JR., Edwin L. Lowther Jr., Scott Andrew Irby, and Gary D. Marts, Jr., for defendants.
Update (5/15/2012): William S.W. Chang