What is the test for punitive damages in civil law?
The following excerpt is from Brown v. State, 652 N.Y.S.2d 223, 674 N.E.2d 1129, 89 N.Y.2d 172 (N.Y. 1996):
"[T]he twin justifications for punitive damages--punishment and deterrence--are hardly advanced when applied to a governmental unit. As [then] Justice TITONE realistically put it in his opinion below, it would be anomalous to have 'the persons who bear the burden of punishment, i.e., the taxpayers and citizens,' constitute 'the self-same group who are expected to benefit from the public example which the granting of such damages supposedly makes of the wrongdoer' " (Sharapata v. Town of Islip, supra, 56 N.Y.2d, at 338-339, 452 N.Y.S.2d 347, 437 N.E.2d 1104, affg. 82 A.D.2d 350, 441 N.Y.S.2d 275).
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