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D'Arbonne Construction Co.12/11/2002
dent on this subject. It is significant that there has been no departure from this approach since 1992, although there has been at least one case in which punitive damages were again found proper where the driver at fault was intoxicated. See J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. v. Doss, 320 Ark. 660, 899 S.W.2d 464 (1995).
The alleged reluctance of our supreme court to impose punitive damages in vehicular cases has been noted by one commentator, who also observed that the Eighth Circuit, "perhaps expressing its displeasure with or disapproval of the strictness of National By-Products," in Potts v. Benjamin, 882 F.2d 1320 (8th Cir. 1989), affirmed an award of punitive damages in an Arkansas vehicular- accident case involving a tractor truck with inoperable brakes on a "piggy-backed" trailer. The Eighth Circuit distinguished the facts in Potts v. Benjamin from the facts in National By-Products when affirming the punitive-damage award, as the majority has done in the case before us.
I do agree with the majority's assertion that "negligence alone, however gross, is not enough to sustain punitive damages," and that the boundary between gross negligence and willful and wanton conduct can be "indistinct." This may well be why our supreme court has been reluctant to expose the driving public to the additional onus of liability for punitive damages in vehicular negligence cases except where there is clear evidence of willful and wanton conduct, such as found in driving drunk and racing on the public roads. I cannot say that driving with possibly defective equipment constitutes or should constitute conduct that goes beyond gross negligence, and would reverse and remand this case in keeping with the standard set forth in National By-Products.
Stroud, C.J., and Hart, and Neal, JJ., join.
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