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Lance Inc. v. Ramanauskas3/5/1999
erence in the amount of the jury's verdict in this case as compared to verdicts in similar cases, and (4) the disparity between the jury's verdict and the amounts of the pro tanto settlements entered into by the motel and Montgomery Coca-Cola. For these reasons, we affirm the judgment, conditioned upon the parents' filing a remittitur of the award to $4 million within 28 days of the release of this opinion; if the parents do not file a remittitur within that time, the judgment will be reversed and this cause will be remanded for a new trial. American Pioneer Life Ins. Co. v. Williamson, 704 So. 2d 1361, 1367 (Ala. 1997).
We are not unmindful that if this remittitur is accepted by the parents, a total of $14 million will have been paid in connection with the child's death. However, one of three co-conspirators in a murder prosecution could not obtain leniency on the theory that because two co- conspirators had already entered pleas of guilty and received a total of 50 years' imprisonment, the State had exacted sufficient retribution for the crime. By the same token, Lance cannot reduce its liability by arguing that the verdict, when combined with the amounts of the pro tanto settlements, is excessive. We further note that this Court has, under the crushing weight of 150 years of stare decisis, consistently held that our wrongful-death statute allows for the recovery of punitive damages only. See Tillis Trucking, supra, ___ So. 2d at ___. Had there been no settlements and the three defendants suffered a judgment at a joint trial, their liability would have been joint and several, and the excessiveness of the verdict would have been measured by the enormity of the collective wrongdoing. See Black Belt Wood Co. v. Sessions, 514 So. 2d 1249 (Ala. 1986). However, as long as we are bound by precedent to limit recovery of damages in a wrongful-death case to punitive damages, we must expect results such as the one in this case.
AFFIRMED CONDITIONALLY.
Hooper, C. J., and Houston, Cook, and Brown, JJ., concur.
Kennedy and See, JJ., concur in the result.
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