General Steel Domestic Sales, LLC v. Bacheller

¶ 50 The majority affirms the district court's trebling of punitive damages on the ground that there is evidence in the record to support the court's conclusion that the corporate defendants engaged in certain conduct during the pendency of the case. Maj. op. at T144-48. But under the straightforward language of the statute, trebling is only appropriate "if it is shown" that the defendant's conduct "further aggravated the damages of the plaintiff" § 183-21-102(8)(b), CRS. (2012). In other words, it is not enough for the conduct simply to have occurred, as the majority suggests, "it must be…