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Ospital was killed and Slusher injured in a car accident caused by Campbell. Slusher and the estate of Ospital brought personal injury and wrongful death claims against Campbell. Both plaintiffs offered to settle for the policy limits of $25,000 each, but State Farm refused this offer while making representations to Campbell that it would represent his interests and keep his assets safe without the need for him to hire his own lawyer. A jury eventually awarded damages of over $185,000 to Campbell and Slusher, of which State Farm initially decided to cover only the original $50,000.Rejecting the opportunity to appeal on Campbell's behalf, State Farm told Campbell to sell his house. Campbell found separate legal counsel to file the appeal while using the attorney of Slusher and Ospital to sue State Farm for bad faith, fraud, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Slusher and Ospital agreed that they would not seek to collect on the original damages award against Campbell but would instead receive 90 percent of the damages awarded against State Farm. After the appellate court denied Campbell's appeal in the original cases against Slusher and Ospital, State Farm agreed to cover the entire amount of $185,000. Campbell proceeded with his claim against State Farm anyway and prevailed.The jury awarded Campbell $2.6 million in compensatory damages and $145 million in punitive damages, but the awards were reduced to $1 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. On appeal, the reduced compensatory damages award was affirmed, while the original punitive damages award was reinstated.
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A lesser punitive damages award would have been adequate to achieve the objectives of awarding punitive damages. Considering jury awards in similar cases, this judgment was a clear outlier and a disproportionate amount considering the harm done or threatened to Campbell. He suffered only minor economic damage and no physical injury, while it is important to note that State Farm ultimately paid the full judgment. Fundamental notions of fairness may limit the authority of states to award punitive damages when they are arbitrary or grossly excessive. This is in part because an unjust deprivation of property may occur, since defendants in civil litigation lack the protections of criminal defendants. Some punitive damages were appropriate based on State Farm's conduct, but it appeared that the jury and the lower courts used this verdict as punishment for State Farm's failings on a nationwide basis. They should have limited their analysis to its conduct in the case at hand and the harm done to a specific individual, since a state does not have the power to punish parties for actions outside its boundaries unless there is a clear connection to the harm suffered by a citizen of that state.
Although investigators and witnesses concluded that Curtis Campbell caused an accident in which one person was killed and another permanently disabled, his insurer, petitioner State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm), contested liability, declined to settle the ensuing claims for the $50,000 policy limit, ignored its own investigators' advice, and took the case to trial, assuring Campbell and his wife that they had no liability for the accident, that State Farm would represent their interests, and that they did not need separate counsel. In fact, a Utah jury returned a judgment for over three times the policy limit, and State Farm refused to appeal. The Utah Supreme Court denied Campbell's own appeal, and State Farm paid the entire judgment. The Campbells then sued State Farm for bad faith, fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The trial court's initial ruling granting State Farm summary judgment was reversed on appeal. On remand, the court denied State Farm's motion to exclude evidence of dissimilar out-of-state conduct. In the first phase of a bifurcated trial, the jury found unreasonable State Farm's decision not to settle. Before the second phase, this Court refused, in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S. 559, to sustain a $2 million punitive damages award which accompanied a $4,000 compensatory damages award. The trial court denied State Farm's renewed motion to exclude dissimilar out-of-state conduct evidence. In the second phase, which addressed, inter alia, compensatory and punitive damages, evidence was introduced that pertained to State Farm's business practices in numerous States but bore no relation to the type of claims underlying the Campbells' complaint. The jury awarded the Campbells $2.6 million in compensatory damages and $145 million in punitive damages, which the trial court reduced to $1 million and $25 million respectively. Applying Gore, the Utah Supreme Court reinstated the $145 million punitive damages award.
(1) To determine a defendant's reprehensibility-the most important indicium of a punitive damages award's reasonableness-a court must consider whether: the harm was physical rather than economic; the tortious conduct evinced an indifference to or a reckless disregard of the health or safety of others; the conduct involved repeated actions or was an isolated incident; and the harm resulted from intentional malice, trickery, or deceit, or mere accident. Gore, 517 U. S., at 576-577. It should be presumed that a plaintiff has been made whole by compensatory damages, so punitive damages should be awarded only if the defendant's culpability is so reprehensible to warrant the imposition of further sanctions to achieve punishment or deterrence. Id., at 575. In this case, State Farm's handling of the claims against the Campbells merits no praise, but a more modest punishment could have satisfied the State's legitimate objectives. Instead, this case was used as a platform to expose, and punish, the perceived deficiencies of State Farm's operations throughout the country. However, a State cannot punish a defendant for conduct that may have been lawful where it occurred, id., at 572. Nor does the State have a legitimate concern in imposing punitive damages to punish a defendant for unlawful acts committed outside of its jurisdiction. The Campbells argue that such evidence was used merely to demonstrate, generally, State Farm's motives against its insured. Lawful 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
(3) The Court need not dwell on the third guidepost. The most relevant civil sanction under Utah state law for the wrong done to the Campbells appears to be a $10,000 fine for an act of grand fraud, which
is dwarfed by the $145 million punitive damages award. The Utah Supreme Court's references to a broad fraudulent scheme drawn from out-of-state and dissimilar conduct evidence were insufficient to justify this amount. P. 428.
The New York State Farm-to-School Program was created to connect schools with local farms and food producers to strengthen local agriculture, improve student health, and promote regional food systems awareness.
The New York State Farm-to-School Program is also a key component of New York State's No Student Goes Hungry initiative. The initiative is a comprehensive program developed to provide students of all ages, backgrounds, and financial situations access to healthy, locally-sourced meals from kindergarten through college. In addition to expanding the Farm-to-School program and access to free breakfast, putting an end to lunch shaming, and ensuring students in kindergarten through college receive access to farm-fresh foods in a quality-learning environment, the No Student Goes Hungry initiative includes a groundbreaking reimbursement program.
To incentivize school districts to use more New York State farm products, the NYS 30% Initiative increases the reimbursement schools receive for lunches from 5.9 cents per meal to 25 cents per meal for any district that purchases at least 30 percent ingredients for their school lunch program from New York farms. School districts that have reached the 30 percent threshold can apply for reimbursement. As of July 1, 2022, the Department has taken the lead on this initiative. Learn more.
The Farm-to-School program has provided grant funding of up to $100,000 per project to eligible applicants, such as kindergarten through grade 12 school food authorities, public schools, charter schools, not-for-profit schools, Indian tribal organizations, and other entities participating in the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, or the Summer Food Service Program. Non for-profit entities working with school food authorities and eligible schools are also able to apply during the application period. Applications should increase the capacity of schools to procure and serve New York State farm products in school meal programs.
The Department publishes a list of licensed businesses who buy or receive an excess of $20,000 of New York farm products from New York State producers for resale. Dealers are licensed annually on May 1st of every year until April 30th of the next year.
New York Thursdays is a locally-sourced meal initiative that brings farm-fresh New York State foods to schools and institutions on one or more Thursdays a month throughout the year. First launched in New York City schools in 2015, and then across upstate New York in 2017, the New York Thursdays program is a great opportunity for New York State producers to connect with a growing market opportunity while boosting the agricultural industry.
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