Louis P. Peck

This case is the second appeal in litigation over a deliberately offensive pig farm in Stowe, Vermont, which was previously ruled a nuisance with compensatory damages upheld. On remand from the first appeal, which had directed reconsideration of punitive damages solely against Normand Ramsey and Ramsey Associates, Inc. based on the existing record, the trial court reduced the $380,000 punitive award to $50,000 total after reappraising the facts and deeming the original amount excessive. The Vermont Supreme Court reversed, holding that the trial court violated the law of the case doctrine and the appellate mandate by relitigating issues already decided, including the non-excessiveness of the prior award, without new evidence. The court reinstated the original punitive damages amount against the remaining defendants plus interest from the date of the first judgment.

torts & liabilityprocedure

This case involved a highway condemnation dispute in which the Vermont State Transportation Board took land from plaintiffs' farm for widening Route 7, and the jury awarded compensation including severance damages based on the state's preexisting right-of-way being limited to three rods. The trial court had granted partial summary judgment to plaintiffs by excluding evidence that the state held a six-rod right-of-way from an 1816 survey and by applying older precedents and a presumption statute, leading to the verdict. The Vermont Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that the trial court erred by not allowing the state to introduce extrinsic evidence to correct errors in the filed survey description and prove the wider right-of-way, as boundaries are not limited solely to the literal filed text and prior case law relying on repealed statutes no longer controls. The court also noted that adverse possession cannot establish rights in highway limits under longstanding Vermont law.

propertyprocedure