Romo

In the wake of its decision in State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Campbell (2003) 538 U.S. 408 [ 155 L.Ed.2d 585 , 123 S.Ct. 1513 ] (hereafter State Farm), the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in the present case. The court summarily vacated the judgment and remanded the case to us for reconsideration in light of State Farm. We have received and considered further briefing from the parties and from amici curiae and we now conditionally affirm the punitive damages portion of the judgment before us, conditioned upon plaintiffs’ acceptance of reduction of the punitive damages portion of the judgment to $23,723,287. If plaintiffs timely consent to the reduction, then the judgment shall be modified accordingly and, as modified, affirmed. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 24(d).)

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Roll-over

In Romo v. Ford Motor Co. (2002) 99 Cal.App.4th 1115 [ 122 Cal.Rptr.2d 139 ], we were presented with an appeal from the judgment in a personal injury and wrongful death case arising from a rollover accident. That opinion contains a more detailed statement of the facts and procedural history of the case. For present purposes, we summarize the facts only…