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Big Award In Bed Bug Case

WASHINGTON -- A day after Burl and Desiree Mathias arrived in Chicago for a packaging trade show, they found themselves itching to get away--at least from their downtown hotel overrun with bedbugs.

After a night in the Motel 6 on East Ontario Street, the brother and sister awoke to find itchy bumps all over their bodies, and the next evening they found the culprit: legions of insects scurrying about in their beds.

Hotel management wasn't surprised by their horrified complaints, because it had been renting out rooms infested with bedbugs for months to unsuspecting customers. The company that operates Motel 6 and other economy motels was, however, taken aback when a Cook County jury hit it with $372,000 in punitive damages after the Mathiases sued.

The $1.6 billion company appealed, but it obviously wasn't banking on a run-in with an incredulous federal appeals court judge, Richard Posner. His recent opinion upholding the jury's award not only takes the corporation to task for an infestation that reached "farcical proportions," it also provides an important analysis of punitive damages that is certain to reverberate in other disputes across the country.

Posner's decision comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that knocked down a $145 million punitive-damages judgment in an insurance case and amid renewed efforts to pass laws scaling back those types of awards. The public has long been torn about huge awards, with critics saying they are getting ridiculously big and defenders insisting they provide a vital check on corporate wrongdoing.

Courts across the country are grappling with how to decide when big-money punitive damage awards--those intended to punish wrongdoing, not just reimburse plaintiffs--are simply too large.

The Supreme Court has said punitive damages can be so excessive that they violate the Constitution, and it has given lower courts guidelines for reining in colossal awards. In its most recent ruling on the issue this spring, it said punitive damages that were dramatically higher than the compensatory damages--the payments that compensate victims for their financial loss--would be considered suspect.

Catherine Sharkey, a professor at Columbia University Law School who has just written a law review article on punitive damages, called Posner's opinion "very significant." Not only did it interpret the recent Supreme Court decision, she said, it also laid out a comprehensive analysis of why punitive damages are awarded in the first place, such as deterring bad behavior and giving plaintiffs an incentive to sue and correct the problem.

"There hasn't been enough attention placed on what are the purposes of punitive damages," she said.

Posner said the bedbug case shows that there are circumstances in which punitive damages can be dramatically higher than compensatory damages. Burl and Desiree Mathias received $5,000 each to compensate them for the pain and treatment of the bug bites, but they were each entitled to the jury's award of roughly 37 times that, Posner concluded.

"The defendant's behavior was outrageous, but the compensable harm done was slight and at the same time difficult to quantify because a large element of it was emotional," Posner wrote for the court.

In detailing the company's misconduct, Posner noted that Motel 6 had known for years that it had a bedbug problem on East Ontario Street but rejected offers to have the entire hotel exterminated for only $500. (The hotel is now a Red Roof Inn, but it still is owned by the same company.)

In 2000, Motel 6 desk clerks began issuing refunds to customers who complained about ticks and biting bugs in rooms. The hotel's manager then recommended closing the establishment while every room was sprayed, but a supervisor refused.

Instead the hotel continued to rent rooms and move guests who complained. Posner wrote of one guest who was moved to three rooms to get away from bedbugs, saying it was "odd that at that point he didn't flee the motel."

With the problem reaching "farcical proportions," the hotel desk clerks were told to call the bedbugs "ticks," on the theory that customers would be less alarmed, Posner noted. It also put rooms on "Do not rent, bugs in room" status but then rented them anyway, the judge said.

well. Eww.

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I was just watching the National on CBC and one of their stories was that after being almost wiped out shortly after WWII, bedbug infestations are up 600% in Canada in the past decade: largely thanks to increased international travel, people bringing them in from developing countries. Definately ewww, but an interesting and unwelcome side effect of our travel addictions.

Article here.

I remember my cousin getting bitten by bed bugs and I got hair lice and etc in Bordeaux.. Wanted to tell the hotel staff, but cousin said it's no use.. I figured they could then clean up.. But she said it would be embarassing and stuff.. Oh well.. We got some hair lice shampoo... and man... so much of work when we got home.

What do these offending critters look like?
Is it easy to see them before finding yourself scratching like crazy and everything contaminated?

I have only stayed in 3 hostels so far & would like to know what to look out for.

Best part is... you cant see em... Head lice.. you can see em crawling... or the eggs.. eggs has a sharp point.. hard to explain... especially i'm always the one getting it and not anyone else i know. hehe