We have posted several times about billionaire Alki David, whose conduct has led to several punitive damages awards (see here, here, and here). In this case, a jury awarded $800 million to a woman who accused David of rape. The trial court reduced the punitive damages award to $80 million and David appealed.
The Court of Appeal (Second District, Division One) affirmed in an unpublished opinion. It found that that the ratio between the $80 million punitive damages award and the $10 million compensatory damages award was not excessive, given the extremely reprehensible nature of David’s conduct. It also held that David forfeited his claim that the plaintiff failed to present sufficient evidence of his financial condition. The court could not evaluate whether the record contained sufficient evidence because David failed to designate a reporters’ transcript for the appeal.
