I'm a jack of all trades, master of none kind of lawyer, but I'll try to break some of this down for you guys and gals:
When filing a complaint, plaintiff must allege sufficient facts, not all the facts nor produce all the evidence, in support of the lawsuit. Just enough to indicate that if the alleged facts are proven, there is a legal remedy to which plaintiff is entitled. Steyn's lawyer met those minimal guidelines here.
The first cause of action is obviously breach of contract. Under this cause of action, only compensatory damages can be awarded (i.e., identifiable amounts lost such as loss of wages, etc.). Punitive damages (i.e., compensation to plaintiff for the purposes of punishing the defendant and/or deterring defendant from engaging in similar conduct in the future) are not available under this cause of action. This is why Steyn only seeks $24,450 under this cause of action, which is the lost wages, lost per diem, etc. It’s all that he can get under this cause of action.
However, under the other causes of action, punitive damages are available. (I’m not sure that he can get punitive damages on the second cause of action, but that’s beside the point since the other causes actions plead facts where punitive damages may be available if proven.) This is why the complaint uses words like “malicious” and “despicable”. Those are the types of conduct that must be proven in order to get those oh so coveted punitive damages. There’s nothing all that personal about Steyn calling Morrissey’s conduct “malicious”, “despicable”, etc., in the lawsuit. It’s what needs to be said in a complaint in order to push the lawsuit through under these kinds of causes of action.)
Steyn’s lawyer seeks $240,000 for a very specific reason. This complies with the Supreme Court’s holding a mere few years ago that punitive damages must be, at a maximum, proportionate to compensatory damages at a ratio of no more than 10:1. Thus, with compensatory damages at $24,500, Steyn’s lawyer calculated punitive damages at $240,000, which is roughly 10:1. (Incidentally, this is the reason why that lady who won $23.6 billion in punitive damages from the cigarette companies will never see that amount of money. Her compensatory damages were “only” $17.5 million. Thus, her punitive damages, if at all, would be something less than $175 million although I was also told that Florida caps their punitive damages at 3-4 times the compensatory damages, which would mean her punitive damages might be $70 million-ish at most. Obviously, it isn’t chump change, but she definitely isn’t going to see $23.6 billion).
Personally, my guess is that the lawyer wasn't enthused about a gross payout of $24,500 to his client, and decided to glom on a very loose interpretation of certain discussions to leverage a higher settlement. Banking on the probability that a deep-pocketed celebrity like Morrissey wouldn't want to be drawn into protracted litigation with depositions into personal details when he could simply scratch a check for some thousands to be rid of this headache. Happens all the time.
