Star Credit Corp. v. Ingram

In Walker v. Sheldon (10 N Y 2d 401), the Court of Appeals established the rule of law, now well accepted in New York, that punitive damages may be assessed as a deterrent to fraudulent consumer sales. It extended the availability of punitive damages from cases of wanton and malicious fraud directed at a specific individual (Toomey v. Farley, 2 N Y 2d 71) to cases of consumer fraud where those damages ‘ ‘ are more likely to serve their desired purpose of deterring similar conduct * * * in any other area of tort.” (Walker v. Sheldon, supra, p. 406.)

*300After extended litigation in this court,…