Jardel Co. v. Kathleen Hughes

WALSH, Justice: This is an appeal from a Superior Court jury verdict awarding $530,000 compensatory and $250,000 punitive damages to an employee of a tenant in a shopping mall who was abducted and raped while leaving her employment. The jury concluded that the plaintiff's injuries were attributable to the combined neglect of the owner of the mall, Jardel Co., Inc., and its parent corporation, John A. Robbins Co., in not providing adequate security in the mall parking lot. Jardel and Robbins 1 contend that the trial court erred in not directing a verdict in their favor on the issue of liability and in several evidentiary rulings in the course of the trial. Jardel also attacks the jury's award of punitive damages as lacking a sufficient legal predicate. We conclude that while the award of compensatory damages is fully supportable in this case, the Superior Court erred, as a matter of law, in submitting the issue of punitive damages to the jury. Accordingly, we reverse that portion of the Superior Court judgment.