Today in National Bank Financial Ltd. v. Barthe Estate, 2015 NSCA 47 the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal awarded punitive damages of $3 million (Canadian).  That amount, far more than the trial judge had awarded, is the largest punitive damages award ever given in this province, and among the largest in Canada.

What makes it interesting, and a little bizarre, is that it was awarded for the Bank's misconduct in the litigation process (failure to disclose, and other conduct prolonging the litigation).  The court characterized this as an abuse of process and awarded damages for that, even though abuse of process does not seem to have been among the numerous causes of action pleaded in the original actions, which involved stock manipulation in a series of complex commercial transactions.  Typically the sanctions for misconduct in the litigation process involve costs awards and perhaps the striking of pleadings, but here we see that, at least in this province, they can involve massive awards of punitive damages by the court conjuring up an abuse of process claim.  Here's the judgment -- the discussion of punitive damages starts at paragraph 439:

http://www.courts.ns.ca/Decisions_Of_Courts/documents/2015nsca47.pdf

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