This is an action against defendant as an inn-keеper. The plaintiff had engaged and paid for a bed for the night, and when he wished to go to bed, at a proper hour, the defendant, who was intoxicated, not only refused to lеt him have the bed, but turned him out of the house, with abusivе and insulting language. At the trial the plaintiff was pеrmitted, against objection, to introduce еvidence of defendant’s pecuniary circumstances. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $900.00.
The rule allowing punitive or exemplary damages in certain cаses of tort, although it has been occаsionally resisted by text-writers and courts, has become, by a great array of decisions, sо firmly rooted in the common law that it cannot be overturned except by an act of the legislature. It was directly affirmed by this court in Lynd v. Picket,
This is a proper casе for that kind of damages. The-defendant’s breach of duty was aggravated by insult to plaintiff, so аs to justify the jury in going beyond actual compensation to plaintiff for the injury done him, and in assеssing, in addition, such sum, in the nature of a fine-upon defendant, as might be an adequate punishment.
Thе verdict, however, is enormously in excess оf what may justly be regarded as compensаtion to plaintiff for being deprived of a lodging in defendant’s inn, situated in a village where it was not difficult to obtain lodging elsewhere,.
The order denying a new trial is reversed, and a new trial ordered.