Gurule v. Illinois Mutual Life & Casualty Co.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• noting that compensatory damages provide adequate deterrence “[i]f defendant did not act with an ‘evil mind’”
• explaining that prior harmful conduct must be related to present acts, such that a defendant would know of the potential for injury
• noting that punitive damages are warranted “only if the defendant’s conduct 15 or motive involves ‘some element of outrage similar to that usually found in crime’” 16 (citations omitted)
• stating that the punitive damage standard “is satisfied by evidence that [the] defendant’s wrongful conduct was motivated by spite, actual malice, or intent to defraud,” or by the defendant’s “conscious and deliberate disregard of the interests and rights of others”
• Bad faith award against insurance company upheld; insurer denied insured’s claim for disability benefits despite variance of medical opinions regarding insured’s disability
• “At any rate, the distinction between preponderance of the evidence and clear and convincing evidence is unimportant here because we find the evidence insufficient to meet even the preponderance threshold.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).