WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – Before a pharmaceutical company needs to show how much it’s worth, a former employee must first prove her claim for punitive damages is justified.
Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal made that ruling on Oct. 14 in Cheryl Ohel’s case against Vital Pharmaceuticals, which is alleged to have violated the Florida Civil Rights Act by firing her for discriminatory reason.
Two years into her case, Ohel asked that Vital produce documents concerning its financial worth in case her claim for punitive damages was accepted.
Vital said the request was overly burdensome and the FCRA caps punitives at $100,000 anyway.
“We doubt that the legislature intended to allow broad and intrusive financial worth discovery in every case brought under the FCRA,” the decision says.
“In the absence of any statutory change, however, trial courts must exercise discretion and consider the circumstances of each case when determining the appropriate scope of discovery.”
Therefore, an order granting the financial discovery is quashed for the time being, while the trial judge reconsiders the “actual factual basis for punitive damages.”