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Wischer v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America9/30/2003
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We concede that there was no malicious act here, we concede it is not necessary for them to intend to have harmed these people.... he hazard, the wind, and doing a lift in the face of this wind without any engineering calculations whatsoever, once that's known, they affirmatively decided to go ahead with this lift, and that is the intentional disregard.
The dispute then specifically entails the interpretation of the phrase "intentional disregard of the rights of the plaintiff." The plaintiffs argue that this standard simply requires evidence demonstrating that Mitsubishi acted volitionally to do something that resulted in the rights of the decedents to a safe work environment being disregarded, and that this part of the statute does not require that any of Mitsubishi's employees either intended that harm result or have either subjective or objective knowledge that such harm was practically certain to occur. They contend that Grotlisch's decision to proceed with the lift on such a windy day under hazardous conditions demonstrated his disregard for the rights of the plaintiffs, thus satisfying the statutory standard and justifying the jury's punitive damage award. The plaintiffs thus argue that punitive damages are appropriate when the defendant intentionally disregards the injured party's right to safety, but that intent to injure is not required. In his closing argument, plaintiffs' counsel stated:
I believe the evidence has shown to you that there was intentional disregard of the rights of the three deceased ironworkers. The intentional part is easy. They intended to do the lift. They made the decision to do the lift. It was an intentional decision. They didn't stumble into it. It was an intentional decision in the face of hazards and obvious wind conditions, and in doing so, they ignored, they disregarded the rights of those three men.
And what were those rights? The right to a safe workplace. The right to life. And in so doing, they intentionally disregarded those rights of the three deceased ironworkers.
We don't have to prove that Victor Grotlisch intended to kill these guys. This is not a criminal case. We don't have to prove that they knew for sure that crane was going to go down.
Let me give you an example. A person decides to run the stop sign, I'm going to run that stop sign, and in running that stop sign crashes into a crossing vehicle, killing the occupants. Would we hear that driver be able to say, I didn't intend to kill those occupants, I didn't know Sally, I didn't know Bill, I didn't intend to kill them?
But that person intended to run that stop sign and, in so doing, must bear the consequences of an intentional disregard of the rights of any other vehicle or pedestrian that might have come into harm's way by that intentional act.
....
There can't be any question, members of the jury, that this was an intentional decision on the part of Grotlisch, concurred in by Noel, that the hazards were obvious and ignored, that the rights of these three men, the right to life, the right to limb, the right to a safe workplace, were ignored and disregarded, as the law calls.
. On the other hand, the defendants argue that punitive damages would be appropriate only if Mitsubishi either: (1) intended to cause the accident or injury; or (2) was aware that its conduct was practically certain to cause the accident or injury. Based on this standard, Mitsubishi claims that this case is not appropriate for a punitive damages award because, as the plaintiffs concede, Mitsubishi did not intend to cause injury or believe with substantial certainty that injury would occur. In their brief in
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