The Missouri Supreme Court has struck down a $500,000 cap against some punitive damages, the Kansas City Star's Mark Morris reports. The court ruled in the case of a $1 million verdict awarded to a woman defrauded by a car dealer: "The Supreme Court restored the judgment because [the plaintiff] had filed her claim as a common law fraud, which has existed in Missouri since the first state constitution was written. Because of that, the legislature cannot limit a jury’s ability to set punitive damage amounts, the court ruled in a unanimous decision," Morris further reports. The cap remains in place for causes of action created by the legislature but not for those developed through the common law before the 1820 adoption of Missouri's first constitution.
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