InstructorTodd Berman
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Brief Fact Summary. of the Facts: In order to deliver a mobile home, SteenBerg Homes went across the Jacque’s property without permission
Synopsis of Rule of Law. When nominal damages are awarded for an intentional trespass to land punitive damages may also be awarded.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes a substantive limit on the size of punitive damages awards.
View Full Point of LawIssue. Whether punitive damages may be awarded in an intentional trespass case when the Plaintiff are only entitled to nominal damages because there is no actual harm to their property.
Held. Yes. Punitive damages are appropriate in intentional trespass cases even if there are no actual damages. The purpose of the punitive damage in this case is deterrence. Landowners have an interest in protecting his or her land from trespass and the United States Supreme Court has held that the right to exclude others from his or her land is one of the most essential […] property rights. If landowners are only allowed compensation for trespass actions that have compensatory damages it makes that right a hollow one. It does not take actual harm to a person’s property for actual harm to occur when someone intentional trespasses upon that land. An award will not be considered excessive in violation of the Due Process clause when the acts are egregious. Here, SteenBerg was unequivocally told no, and still continued on the land. That disregard for the Jacque’s rights amounts to that egregious conduct.
Discussion. Yes. Punitive damages are appropriate in intentional trespass cases even if there are no actual damages. The purpose of the punitive damage in this case is deterrence. Landowners have an interest in protecting his or her land from trespass and the United States Supreme Court has held that the right to exclude others from his or her land is one of the most essential […] property rights. If landowners are only allowed compensation for trespass actions that have compensatory damages it makes that right a hollow one. It does not take actual harm to a person’s property for actual harm to occur when someone intentional trespasses upon that land. An award will not be considered excessive in violation of the Due Process clause when the acts are egregious. Here, SteenBerg was unequivocally told no, and still continued on the land. That disregard for the Jacque’s rights amounts to that egregious conduct.