A court in Washington, D.C., was tasked to decide if a malfunctioning fire alarm should yield punitive damages against a residential building’s management company. The plaintiff, who was trapped in his apartment for five days in the aftermath of a fire, filed suit against the management company. The suit included a claim for compensation to punish the defendant.
The management company filed a motion for summary judgment and contended otherwise. The defendant maintained that any issue with the alarm was not causally linked to the plaintiff’s injuries and that it did not possess the requisite state of mind to receive a punitive award.