A jury has awarded $5,000 to $10,000 apiece to nine workers to cover medical expenses and to compensate them for pain and suffering after they claimed they were hurt by the release of a toxic substance at a BP PLC plant. The Texas workers had complained of sore throats and dizziness, and one passed out. Their attorney acknowledged that none had suffered any long-term lung damage.
But bizarrely, the same jury has awarded the workers $10 million each in punitive damages! That’s an outrage!
If the company released a substance that made workers sick, it is certainly reasonable that it should pay their medical expenses and provide some compensation for their discomfort. But how can anyone argue that $5,000 to $10,000 in medical bills should translate into $10 million in punitive damages?
Plaintiffs who have been harmed through the intentional or negligent acts of another should be entitled to full compensation for the actual harm they suffered — medical bills, lost work hours, disability, etc. — plus reasonable pain-and-suffering damages in proportion to the actual economic losses. But “jackpot justice” makes a mockery of our legal system.
Alas, in the BP case, this is only the beginning. The attorney for the workers says he plans to bring dozens more cases to trial as well.