Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct that violates a legal duty or standard of care. It supplies the basis for tort damages when a fiduciary breaches a duty owed to the beneficiary and for dissociation from a partnership or limited partnership when the conduct adversely and materially affects the entity's activities and affairs.
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Officer Ramirez searched a vehicle after a minor traffic stop and found drugs. The stop was later ruled invalid because the officer misread a license plate. Winter Wolfe moved to suppress the evidence. The court denied the motion because the officer's error was merely negligent and isolated, so the deterrent value of exclusion did not outweigh its social costs.
Wendy Wu executed a will leaving the marital home to her sister. Wendy and her husband held the home as tenants by the entirety. Wendy died while still married and before any divorce decree. Title passed automatically to the surviving spouse because the will could not dispose of the nonprobate property absent wrongful conduct by the survivor.
William Williams, a nonunion miner, was assaulted by striking members of a local union during a labor dispute. The union had authorized the picket line but not the assault. Williams sued the union for tort damages. The court permitted recovery only for harm directly and proximately caused by the violent conduct chargeable to the defendants.
Wren Wallace purchased a policy from an insurer that repeatedly denied valid claims. A jury awarded Wallace $1 million in compensatory damages and $145 million in punitive damages. The Supreme Court held that the punitive award was excessive because it bore no reasonable relationship to the compensatory award and the insurer's wrongful conduct.
Willa Whitman, a former government employee, sued the President for damages arising from an alleged retaliatory discharge. The President moved to dismiss on absolute immunity grounds. The Court held that the need to protect the Executive function outweighed the private interest in redressing the claimed wrongful conduct through civil damages.
Wellesley Media's tanker spilled oil after a grounding caused by the captain's intoxication. A jury awarded substantial compensatory damages and a large punitive award. The Supreme Court reviewed the punitive award under common-law criteria that include the degree of reprehensibility of the wrongful conduct and its profitability to the defendant.
Exclusion turns on balancing the deterrent purpose of the rule against its social costs. Isolated or merely negligent misconduct by police does not automatically trigger suppression because the potential to deter future violations is low.
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Absent wrongful conduct or unjust enrichment by the survivor, equity will not impose a constructive trust to alter the automatic passage of title. The will cannot override the survivorship feature even if divorce proceedings are pending.
…material information had been breached, concluding that the necessary nexus between the plaintiffs' injury and the defendant's wrongful conduct had been established. See Affiliated Ute Citizens v. United States, 406 U. S., at 153-154. Similarly, we did not require proof that material omissions or misstatements in a proxy statement…
…would be bound to occur if civil damages actions were made available to private individuals. Although the individual who claims wrongful conduct
…id., at 247 , and noted that in Laburnum damages were restricted to the damages directly and proximately caused by wrongful conduct
…Compensatory damages are intended to redress the concrete loss that the plaintiff has suffered by reason of the defendant’s wrongful conduct
…general criteria, such as "actual or likely harm [from the defendant's conduct]," "degree of reprehensibility," and "[i]f the
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A partner may be dissociated when the person has engaged in wrongful conduct that adversely and materially affects the partnership's activities. Courts apply the statutory standard to determine whether the conduct justifies expulsion or dissociation.
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Punitive damages aim to punish wrongdoers and deter wrongful conduct. Courts evaluate the reprehensibility of the conduct, its profitability, and the relationship between punitive and compensatory awards to ensure the punishment is not grossly excessive.
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An intervening wrongful act does not supersede the defendant's liability when the act is a foreseeable result of the defendant's negligence and remains within the scope of the risk created by that negligence.
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