Barnwell v. Barber-Colman Co.

I respectfully dissent. In my opinion, South Carolina law permits recovery of punitive damages in actions based solely on the theory of strict liability in cases where the plaintiff has pled and proven that the defendant was aware of or culpably indifferent to an unreasonably high risk of injury to the plaintiff and failed to take steps to reduce such endangerment to a more acceptable level.

The record before this Court is incomplete; therefore, we are unable to determine with any degree of certainty the nature and degree of plaintiff’s proof. Accepting the *539assertions contained in petitioner’s…