“Punitive damages are appropriate where the conduct of a defendant has been especially egregious and deserving of denunciation. This would include conduct which is arbitrary, callous, contumelious, fraudulent, highhanded, malicious, outrageous, reprehensible, or wanton, shows a contempt of the plaintiff’s rights, departs significantly from ordinary standards of decent behavior, or offends the court’s sense of decency.
There are two basic principles guiding the quantification of punitive damages:
(1) punitive damages must be assessed in an amount reasonably proportionate to such factors as the harm caused, the degree of the misconduct, the relative vulnerability of the plaintiff and any advantage or profit gained by the defendant having regard to any other fines or penalties suffered by the defendant for the misconduct in question; and
(2) where compensatory damages are insufficient to accomplish the objects of retribution, deterrence of the defendant and others from similar misconduct in the future and the community’s collective condemnation or denunciation of what has occurred, punitive damages will be given in an amount that is no greater than necessary to accomplish these objectives rationally.
Underlying these principles must also be recognition of the exceptional nature of punitive damages and the need to be fair to both sides: Estate of Pate v. Township of Galway-Cavendish (2013), 2013 ONCA 669 (CanLII), 117 OR (3d) 481 (CA) at para 200.”