Wong

I. BACKGROUND

Tom and a longtime friend had dinner at Tom’s house. They drank cocktails before dinner. After nightfall, the two drove in separate cars on the residential streets of San Carlos, where the posted speed limits were between 30 and 35 miles per hour. Wong drove her car through an intersection and into the path of Tom’s car, and they collided. In the kilometer of road just prior to the point of impact, Tom’s car had traveled at speeds as high as 85 miles per hour. At the time of impact, he was traveling more than 51 miles per hour. Wong’s two daughters were in the car with her, and one was killed by the impact of the collision.1 Wong, her husband, and their surviving daughter filed suit. At trial, Tom did not dispute he was negligent in causing the collision, but he contended Wong, who was using her cell phone at the time of impact, was comparatively negligent, and he disputed her request for punitive damages. After a 19-day trial featuring a painstaking reexamination of the events of that night by several different police officers and other experts, the jury imposed sizable compensatory damages, found Wong not comparatively negligent, and levied $8,000 in punitive…