Hylton v. Gunter
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed an action against Defendant alleging, inter alia, fraud and civil theft. The trial court found in favor of Plaintiff on eight counts of the complaint and awarded him $342,648 in compensatory damages. The court also found Plaintiff was entitled to “punitive damages in the form of attorney’s fees” on four of the counts. After Defendant filed this appeal, the trial court awarded Plaintiff $23,400 in punitive damages, which represented the amount claimed in attorney’s fees. Thereafter, the Appellate Court dismissed Defendant’s appeal for lack of a final judgment by relying on its decision in Lord v. Mansfield. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Appellate Court improperly dismissed Defendant’s appeal for lack of a final judgment. The Court held that Lord was wrongly decided because it is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Paranteau v. DeVita, which adopted the bright line rule that “a judgment on the merits is final for purposes of appeal even though the recoverability or amount of attorney’s fees for the litigation remains to be determined.”
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