NYC Asbestos Judge Lifts Deferral on Punitive Damages

NEW YORK –– A New York judge has ended a nearly 20-year deferral on punitive damages in the city’s asbestos docket, ruling that the section of the docket’s case management order deferring such claims raised “serious constitutional equal protection concerns.”

In the April 8 order, Judge Sherry Klein Heitler of the New York Supreme Court for New York County amended the asbestos docket’s CMO to afford plaintiffs the opportunity to apply for permission to charge the jury on the issue of punitive damages. If the trial judge permits the charge and the jury determines that punitive damages are warranted, a …