## Facts

- Hobbs filed a civil action against Murphy seeking damages for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.
- Hobbs alleged Murphy maliciously caused criminal proceedings to be instituted against him and caused his resulting confinement.
- The trial court instructed the jury that, beyond compensatory damages, it could award punitive (exemplary) damages for the purpose of punishing Murphy.
- The jury returned a verdict for Hobbs and awarded both compensatory damages and punitive damages.
- Murphy appealed, challenging the instruction permitting punitive damages on the ground that the same conduct could also subject him to criminal prosecution.

## Issues

1. Whether a plaintiff may recover punitive (exemplary) damages in a civil action when the defendant’s conduct is also of a type that may be prosecuted criminally.
2. Whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury to award damages “for the purpose of punishing” the defendant in such circumstances.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court reversed the judgment to the extent it allowed punitive damages.
- The court held that punitive damages are not recoverable where the defendant’s conduct may also be criminally prosecuted.
- Because the instruction authorized punishment through the civil verdict, it was improper and required reversal of the punitive-damages component of the judgment.
- The accessible accounts do not specify detailed remand directions, but they uniformly describe the disposition as reversing the punitive-damages aspect authorized by the instruction.

## Legal Principles

- Punitive (exemplary) damages, as damages imposed to punish, are penal in character rather than compensatory.
- When the defendant’s conduct is of a kind that can be punished through criminal prosecution, imposing punitive damages in a private civil action constitutes duplicative punishment for the same conduct.
- The function of civil damages is to compensate the plaintiff for actual injury; compensatory damages are sufficient to make the plaintiff whole, and an additional punitive sum operates as an extra penalty rather than compensation.
- Punishment for public wrongs is assigned to the criminal law; where criminal process is available, a civil jury should not be instructed to impose punishment through exemplary damages.

## Conclusion

The Colorado Supreme Court rejected a punitive-damages instruction in an action for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment, holding that exemplary damages are unavailable when the same conduct may be criminally prosecuted because such an award would amount to impermissible double punishment beyond full compensation.


Murphy v. Hobbs, 5 P. 119 (Colo. 1884)