Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg

Honda Motor Company v. Oberg
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 20, 1994 Decided June 24, 1994
Full case name	Honda Motor Company, Ltd., et al., Petitioners v. Karl L. Oberg
Citations	512 U.S. 415 (more) 114 S. Ct. 2331; 129 L. Ed. 2d 336; 1994 U.S. LEXIS 4825; 62 U.S.L.W. 4627; CCH Prod. Liab. Rep. ¶ 13,895; 94 Cal. Daily Op. Service 4761; 94 Daily Journal DAR 8844; 8 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 341
Holding
Oregon's 1910 state constitutional amendment prohibiting a judicial review of jury awards violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices Harry Blackmun · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Case opinions
Majority	Stevens, joined by Blackmun, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas
Concurrence	Scalia
Dissent	Ginsburg, joined by Rehnquist
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Honda Motor Company v. Oberg, 512 U.S. 415 (1994), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that an amendment to the Oregon state constitution disallowing judicial review of the size of punitive damages was a violation of due process.^[1]

Decision

In a products liability action, Honda was found liable for injuries received by the plaintiff in an ATV accident. Honda was liable for a $5 million punitive damage award, and both the state appellate court and the Oregon Supreme Court declined to review the award for excessiveness based on an amendment to the Oregon constitution. The Supreme Court of United States held that the amendment to the Oregon constitution violated due process. The Court held that judicial review of punitive damage awards for excessiveness was a long-standing common law tradition that was critical in protecting against arbitrary deprivations of property, and that Oregon had not instituted a substitute procedure to maintain these protections.^[2]

See also

• Geier v. American Honda Motor Company
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 512

References

External links

• Text of Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, 512 U.S. 415 (1994) is available from: Cornell  Google Scholar  Justia  Oyez (oral argument audio)