In what circumstances is it possible for a court to award exemplary damages in tort?
Date Submitted: 01/11/2001 02:44:43
I. Introduction
Exemplary damages, also known as punitive damages, are granted in some tort cases to "express the court's disapproval of what the defendant has done" . The principles of exemplary damages in tort laws are laid out in the decision of the House of Lord in Rookes v Barnard . In that case, Lord Devlin classified the cases in which the plaintiff is entitled to claim exemplary damages into three categories, namely:
(1)"oppressive arbitrary or unconstitutional
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exemplary damages, particularly because of the publicity of Ma and Yuen case.
The Hong Kong courts still take a relatively conservative approach in exemplary damages. Such damages are really exceptional.
Bibliography:
(1)P R Ghandhi, Exemplary damages in the English law of tort, (1990) 10(2) LS pp 182-200
(2)Benjamin Andoh and Stephen Marsh, Civil Remedies (Dartmouth Publishing Company, 1997)
(3)Stephen Todd, Exemplary Damages, (1998) 18 NZULR pp 145 - 196
(4)Atiyah, P S, Atiyah's accidents, compensation and the law (London : Butterworths, 1993, 5th ed)
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