Montanna Binder
BROWNING-FERRIS INDUSTRIES V KELCO DISPOSAL (1989)
492 U.S. 257
Argued: April 18, 1989
Decided: June 26, 1989
FACTS: ​Respondents Joseph Kelley and Kelco Disposal, Inc., filed suit against petitioners
(collectively BFI) in Federal District Court, charging BFI with antitrust violations and with
interfering with Kelco's contractual relations in violation of Vermont tort law. Both are private
parties utilizing contract law.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY: ​A jury found BFI liable on both counts, and awarded Kelco, in
addition to $51,146 in compensatory damages, $6 million in punitive damages on the state-law
claim. Denying BFI's post-trial motions, the District Court upheld the jury's punitive damages
award. The Court of Appeals affirmed as to both liability and damages, holding that even if the
Eighth Amendment were applicable, the punitive damages awarded were not so
disproportionate as to be constitutionally excessive.
ISSUE:​ Whether the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment applies to a civil-jury
award of punitive or exemplary damages.
HOLDING: ​Held. The Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment does not apply to
punitive damages awards in cases between private parties; it does not constrain such an award
when the government neither has prosecuted the action nor has any right to recover a share of
the damages awarded.
ANALYSIS: ​Justice Blackmun states “This Court has never held, or even intimated, that the
Eighth Amendment serves as a check on the power of a jury to award damages in a civil case.
Rather, our concerns in applying the Eighth Amendment have been with criminal process and
with direct actions initiated by government to inflict punishment.” On the basis of the history and
purpose of the Eighth Amendment, that its Excessive Fines Clause does not apply to awards of
punitive damages in cases between private parties.