Stevenson v. First American Title Insurance Company

Whether federal due process requires state-court judges, in reviewing jury-awarded punitive damages for constitutional excessiveness, to: (1) use de novo review to set punitive damages at the level they find appropriate, without viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, based on Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., as courts in at least seven states (including the court below) hold; or, instead, (2) use the rational-factfinder test of Jackson v. Virginia viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and upholding the maximum amount a rational jury could award on the record so viewed (measured by the relevant legal guideposts), based on Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, as courts in at least five states hold.