Judge hears punitive damages arguments in Scaife case
Trustees to a drained family fund could face a punitive damages claim if a judge rules in favor of the daughter and son of the late billionaire publisher Richard Mellon Scaife.
While it’s rare for Pennsylvania courts to hit trustees with punitive damages, attorneys for Jennie Scaife, 53, of Florida, and David Scaife, 50, of Shadyside, contend that state law doesn’t rule it out, and that numerous other states explicitly allow such punishments when fiduciary duties are breached.
“The modern trend for addressing this issue is to permit {punitive damages},” attorney William Pietragallo said during court arguments Thursday. He represents Jennie Scaife and presented a list of 14 states in which that has occurred.
“Until you sit as a trial court in any one of those 14, your decision has to be based on Pennsylvania law,” attorney Samuel Braver, representing trustee PNC Bank, told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen A. Durkin. Pennsylvania law says trustees must restore lost money, but is “not penal,” he said.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/03/02/Judge-hears-punitive-damages-arguments-in-Richard-Mellon-Scaife-case-Pittsburgh/stories/201703020212
