1987: A cap born from a wave of tort reform
During a nationwide wave of tort reform legislation in the 1980s, Oregon enacted a $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages — pain and suffering, emotional distress, and similar nonpecuniary losses — codified at ORS § 31.710.
1999: Struck down the first time
In a decision known as Lakin, the Oregon Supreme Court held that the cap violated the remedy clause of the Oregon Constitution, Article I, Section 10 — which the court read, at the time, as providing a substantive guarantee of a meaningful remedy for certain injuries.
2016: A surprising revival
In Horton v. Oregon Health & Science University, the Oregon Supreme Court overruled Lakin entirely, reviving several nearly century-old precedents that Lakin had itself overruled. Horton established a new test: a damages cap violates the remedy clause only if the capped amount is "insubstantial" compared to what the jury actually awarded — a "paltry fraction" of the real damages. Horton itself involved the Oregon Tort Claims Act's own damages cap, which the court found did not violate the remedy clause in that specific case.
2016-2020: Lower courts split
Following Horton, Oregon's Court of Appeals heard a string of cases applying the new test to the separate general noneconomic damages cap. In one case, Vasquez v. Double Press Manufacturing, reducing a plaintiff's award from $6.2 million to $1.9 million under the cap was found to leave him with only a "paltry fraction" of his actual damages — unconstitutional as applied. These cases built toward a final resolution.
2020: Struck down again, definitively
In Busch v. McInnis Waste Systems, the Oregon Supreme Court finally and definitively resolved the question: the $500,000 cap under ORS § 31.710(1) is unconstitutional as applied to an ordinary personal injury claim brought by a living plaintiff. One commentary memorably summarized the outcome: "Oregon's damages cap is dead — at least as to the living."
The genuinely surprising twist: it survives for wrongful death
Here's the detail that makes this story complete. The same $500,000 cap remains in place specifically for wrongful death claims in Oregon — a real, continuing limitation distinct from the ordinary personal injury context where it was struck down. The years of litigation specifically targeted the cap's application to living, injured plaintiffs; the wrongful death context has followed its own separate constitutional analysis and hasn't seen the same outcome.
Why this history genuinely matters today
For an ordinary Oregon personal injury claim brought by a living plaintiff, there is currently no general statutory ceiling on noneconomic damages — a jury's award for pain and suffering stands on its own. For a wrongful death claim specifically, the $500,000 cap remains a real, continuing consideration. Given how much this area of Oregon law has shifted over the decades, confirming the current state of the law with an attorney is a genuinely worthwhile step in any significant claim.