Definition of sort for Students. 1  1 : a group of persons or things that have something in common : kind all sorts of people. 2  2 : person 1, individual He was not a bad sort. 3  3 : general disposition : nature people of an evil sort.
Punitive Damages Definition: Special and highly exceptional damages ordered by a court against a defendant where the act or omission which caused the suit, was of a particularly heinous, malicious or highhanded nature.
Because they are usually paid in excess of the plaintiff's provable injuries, punitive damages are awarded only in special cases, usually under tort law, where the defendant's conduct was egregiously insidious.he Court held that punitive damages must be reasonable, as determined by the degree of reprehensibility of the conduct that caused the plaintiff's injury, the ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages, and any comparable criminal or civil penalties applicable to the conduct.