Persaud v. Cortes

Appellant, Vishnu D. Persaud, appeals the trial court’s final'judgment awarding $1.25 million in punitive damages in favor of Barbara Cortes, as personal representative of the estate of Joshua Batista, and Andrew T. Santiago (collectively, “Appel-lees”). Because the trial court abused its discretion by failing to provide a requested jury instruction, we reverse and remand for a new trial on punitive damages.

In May 2009, Appellees filed a complaint against Persaud for wrongful death and negligence. The claims stemmed from a November 2008 accident in which Per-saud’s vehicle rear-ended a…