The Supreme Court of Georgia has vacated a Court of Appeals decision in a case arising from a trial in which a jury awarded punitive damages in a dispute between Meriwether County produce farms.
The state’s highest court concluded that statements made during a settlement negotiation were not properly admitted under state law.
The underlying dispute involves a lawsuit filed by Fitzgerald Fruit Farms, which leased Whitaker Farms-owned land for a peach orchard after Fitzgerald Farms was locked out of the leased premises. A jury awarded Fitzgerald Farms compensatory damages.
However, the trial court did not allow the issue of punitive damages to go to the jury.
In the first appearance of this case before the Court of Appeals, the intermediate appellate court reversed the trial court’s ruling that Fitzgerald Farms could not seek punitive damages. A second jury later awarded punitive damages to Fitzgerald Farms.
The Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, holding that statements made during a settlement negotiation before the first trial by Curtis Whitaker, chief operating officer of Whitaker Farms, to Sean Lennon, the owner of Fitzgerald Farms, were properly admitted under Rule 408, a rule of evidence that governs the admissibility of settlement offers and statements made in settlement negotiations.
The Supreme Court granted Whitaker Farms’ petition for certiorari and heard oral arguments on May 16. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the intermediate appellate court to determine whether the erroneous admission of the evidence was harmful enough to warrant a new trial on punitive damages in this case.