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Wischer v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America9/30/2003
. Having reached this conclusion, we must also conclude that the trial court erred in submitting the punitive damages issue to the jury. The trial court specifically ruled, and the plaintiffs agreed, that there was no evidence that the defendants intended to harm the decedents or that the defendant knew their conduct was practically certain to result in injury . The plaintiffs, through counsel, conceded that the evidence does not rise to the level of intent to harm. Specifically, in his brief to this court, plaintiffs' counsel admits: " here is no evidence to permit a conclusion that the [Mitsubishi] employees intended to cause bodily injury to the decedents or that they knew or should have known that bodily injury to the decedents was substantially certain to follow."
. Accordingly, because it is undisputed that the record does not contain any evidence to support a specific intent to harm or knowledge that Mitsubishi's conduct was practically certain to result in harm, we must reverse the judgment pertaining to punitive damages. The issue should not have been submitted to the jury because there was insufficient evidence to send a punitive damages question to the fact-finder. Accordingly, the punitive damages award of $94,000,000 is hereby vacated.
. Based on our disposition, it is not necessary for us to decide any of the other issues raised. The plaintiffs retain the $27,000,000, which has already been paid. The case does not need to be retried because the evidentiary and insurance issues are now moot. Therefore, we decline to address the merits of any of the other issues raised in this appeal.
By the Court. -- Judgments and orders affirmed in part; reversed in part.
Recommended for publication in the official reports.
. FINE, J. (concurring).
I fully join in Judge Wedemeyer's opinion. I wish to add a few words, however, about what I believe has been a general transformation of punitive damages from a useful social tool into something filled with the seeds of dangerous, albeit unintended, consequences. None of my comments has influenced my decision in this matter; as the Majority opinion explains, the recovery of punitive damages in these cases is barred by Wis. Stat. § 895.85, and as judges on an intermediate appellate court we are bound by the law given to us by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the legislature, and, on matters of federal-constitutional interpretation, the United States Supreme Court.
. Punitive damages, as the term denotes, are designed to punish and deter egregious anti-social conduct. Indeed, under the Wisconsin Supreme Court's most recent analysis, punishment and deterrence are the only purposes for which punitive damages may be awarded in this state. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Tower Ins. Co., 2003 WI 46, , 261 Wis. 2d 333, 355, 661 N.W.2d 789, 799 (" he purpose of punitive damages is to punish the wrongdoer, and to deter the wrongdoer and others from similar conduct, rather than to compensate the plaintiff for any loss.").
. Until the Wisconsin legislature enacted Wis. Stat. § 895.85, the right to recover punitive damages was created and shaped wholly by judges in this state, and not by the legislature. Punitive damages were designed to be a "quasi-criminal" way to punish conduct that would otherwise go unpunished. Kink v. Combs, 28 Wis. 2d 65, 80, 135 N.W.2d 789, 798 (1965).
Suffice it to say that whatever shortcomings the award of punitive damages may have, nevertheless, it must be remembered that it has the effect of bringing to punishment types of conduct that though oppressive and hurtful to the individual almost invariably go unpunished b
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