“[P]unitive damages may not be recovered in an action for breach of contract.”
How later courts described this case
- “[P]unitive damages may not be recovered in an action for breach of contract.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
ON PETITION TO REHEAR
Defendants have filed a petition to rehear, supported by a succinct argument, and plaintiffs have replied. Both sides agree that the purpose of a petition to rehear is to call the Court’s attention to authority overlooked rather than to reargue the case. See Abernathy v. Chambers, 482 S.W.2d 129 (Tenn.1972); Knox County v. Moncier, 224 Tenn. 361 , 455 S.W.2d 153 (1970). The argument defendants now press again asserts the inconsistency of punitive damages with rescission and the preclusion of the former by election of the latter. Since defendants raise nothing that was not considered on our original hearing of the case, the petition to rehear must be denied.
In denying the petition, we emphasize that in making our decision in this case we gave careful consideration to the arguments persuasively made by defendants that the rescission theory of returning the parties to the status quo ante is inconsistent with an award of punitive damages. However, we believed and continue to believe that the merits and logic of that technical approach are outweighed by those of the approach we have taken, which is that punitive damages and rescission are not inconsistent because the fundamental purpose of the former, to punish the defendant’s actions, is not inconsistent with the fundamental purpose of the latter, to redress the plaintiff’s injury. In other words, we think that in a rescission action the theory of placing the parties in the status quo ante and ignoring their negotiations ought to be applied only in assessing the redress due the plaintiff for his injury, and that punitive damages are punishment for the defendant rather than redress to the plaintiff and should be considered independently of the rescission theory. In addition, we believe that our approach advances two related and sound policies. One is not unduly to burden the plaintiff, who is the wronged party, in making his choice of redress between rescission and compensatory damages by forbidding him to couple a request for punitive damages with rescission, which may often provide a smaller recovery than compensatory damages to begin with. The other is to prevent the plaintiff’s choice of redress from allowing the defendant, who is the wrongdoer, to escape the punishment that the law of punitive damages imposes for certain types of conduct.
In sum, our opinion in this ease was the result of a careful consideration of many factors, among which were all the points defendants now raise in their petition to rehear. The petition is denied.
SHRIVER, P. J., and TODD, J., concur.