Oregon Live reports that a jury in Portland has awarded $295,000 in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages against a California landlord for failing to maintain an apartment complex in Portland. The plaintiff is a man who claimed he fell through a rotting second-story walkway at the complex.
Under Oregon’s split-recovery statute, 70 percent of the punitive damages award will go to the state if the award is upheld. With a punitive-to-compensatory ratio of 68-to-1, the award will almost certainly be reduced.
