O'NEILL v. Smith

The question certified to this Court asks whether it would violate South Carolina’s public policy for a plaintiff to seek an award of punitive damages in a tort action after signing a covenant not to execute against a defendant. We answer in the negative, holding it does not violate public policy because punitive damages serve additional purposes beyond merely punishing a specific individual, and the public policy as expressed in S.C.Code Ann. § 38-77-30(4) (2002) is to compensate the injured insured, not his insurer, and requires only that damages exceed the liability insurance limits of an…