The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is set to determine whether a punitive damages award more than 11 times greater than its corresponding compensatory award can pass constitutional muster if the allegedly excessive amount is divided up between several defendants.

On Tuesday, the justices agreed to hear arguments in the case The Bert Co. v. Turk. The justices specifically agreed to consider whether a punitive damages award more than nine times the compensatory amount “is presumptively unconstitutional” under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, whether the punitive-to-compensatory damages ratio can be calculated on a per-defendant, rather than aggregate basis, and whether courts should consider the speculative harm that a plaintiff could have suffered in determining whether a punitive damages award is reasonable.

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