Qwest Services Corp. v. Blood
Annotate this CaseRespondent and former employee Andrew Blood suffered severe and permanent injuries while working on a wood utility pole owned by Petitioner Qwest Services Corporation (Qwest). Blood sued Qwest for negligence, asserting that Quest failed to implement a routine inspection program that would have detected the rotting that caused the pole to collapse on top of him. A jury awarded Respondent close to $30 million, finding Qwest 100% at fault. Qwest appealed the verdict and award, and the appeals court affirmed the trial court’s decision. On appeal to the Supreme Court, Qwest argued that the “exemplary damages” awarded to Respondent violated its due process rights. Furthermore, Qwest challenged whether the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support “exemplary damages” and the jury’s subsequent award. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts’ decisions, finding that Qwests’s due process rights were not violated by the trial court’s decision. Furthermore, the evidence was sufficient to demonstrate that Qwest’s failure to implement an inspection program for 46-years prior to Respondent’s accident to support the exemplary damage award handed down by the trial court.
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