Reeves v. Reeves

The opinion of the court was delivered by

DREIER, J.A.D.

Defendant husband appeals from the portion of the judge’s domestic violence order that awards plaintiff $7,500 punitive damages. There is no question of the domestic violence itself. There is ample basis in the record to support the judge’s factual findings that defendant, after spending a morning drinking at his deer club, returned home and beat his wife.

The trial judge’s domestic violence order was entirely proper up to the point that he treated the issue of punitive damages. He apparently found that as a matter of law he was required…