"Frivolous lawsuit" opponent William Koch wins $12 million lawsuit over 24 bottles of wine

[sir pball]

46. The $12mil was punitive damages - Koch didn't, legally couldn't, ask for that much.

Plaintiffs can't ask for punitive damages: "Punitive damages, also known as exemplary damages, may be awarded by the trier of fact (a jury or a judge, if a jury trial was waived) in addition to actual damages, which compensate a plaintiff for the losses suffered due to the harm caused by the defendant...Unless otherwise required by statute, the award of punitive damages is left to the discretion of the trier of fact."

Koch was suing for the $320K he paid for the wine - the jury awarded the $500K/bottle punitive damages on their own. Like the McD's coffee case, she asked for her medical expenses and the jury went overboard with the punitive damages. I'm not offering an opinion on "tort reform" either way and certainly not defending Billy boy, just pointing out that it wasn't his doing.