Sacramento jury awards $17.4 million in punitive damages against rail company

The Sacramento Bee reports that a jury in Sacramento this week awarded $39.6 million in damages, including $17.4 million in punitive damages, against Patriot Rail Corp. of Florida.  The plaintiff in the case is Sierra Railroad Co., a privately held corporation that operates a number of tourist trains in California.  Sierra alleged that Patriot breached a nondisclosure information between the two companies and used Sierra’s information to poach one of Sierra’s biggest clients.  Patriot says it plans to appeal the jury’s award, which includes $22.2 million in compensatory damages.