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Punitive Damages Alone may be Awarded
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an award of punitive damages in a Title VII case where no actual or nominal damages were awarded. Title VII provides recovery for punitive damages where the plaintiff demonstrates that the defendant “engaged in a discriminatory practice … with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of an aggrieved individual.” The Court reasoned that “there is some unseemliness for a defendant who engages in malicious or reckless violations of legal duty to escape either the punitive or deterrent goal of punitive damages merely because either good fortune or a plaintiff’s unusual strength or resilience protected the plaintiff from suffering harm.” In fact, the Court reasoned, “it is often ‘precisely [in the cases where no actual harm is shown] that the policy of providing an incentive for plaintiffs to bring petty outrages into court comes into play.” In so ruling, the plaintiff in a sexual harassment case who suffered no actual damages was allowed to keep the $100,000 in punitive damages she had been awarded by the jury. Cush-Crawford v. Adchem Corp.