In a case closely watched by tort reformers, a federal appeals court has whittled a $25.5 million punitive damages award to $1.95 million in a carbon monoxide poisoning lawsuit in Wyoming.

Reversing much of the lower court’s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on April 1 found that punitive damages in the case were “excessive and arbitrary” in violation of the 14th Amendment’s due process clause. The panal vacated punitive damages against one defendant and cut the award against the other, changing the ratio of compensatory to punitive damages to 1-to-1.

Originally published in The American Lawyer - May 2016.