Punitive damages award overturned when intent to injure is not found
July 14, 1999, was to have been an exciting day in the construction of Miller Park Stadium, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers major-league professional baseball team. A crane known as “Big Blue” was to lift a large piece of the stadium's retractable roof, so workers could bolt it into place. Windy conditions prevailed during the lift, which did not go as planned. The crane, operated by a subcontractor on the project, broke, resulting in the deaths of three ironworkers.
The stadium's owner had purchased an owner-controlled insurance program to provide commercial general liability insurance coverage for the construction project. The coverage was “layered,” with each insurer's coverage attaching when the underlying policy was exhausted.
After the estates of the three dead ironworkers sued the stadium's general contractor and the subcontractor, among others, the parties entered into three settlement agreements. Under two of them, which were entered into before trial, the first two insurers in the OCIP paid their policy limits ($2 million and $5 million) to the plaintiffs.
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