Title: Wilcox v. Leverock

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

548 So. 2d 1116 (1989)
Edith J. WILCOX, Etc., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
William Rene LEVEROCK, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 73207.

Supreme Court of Florida.
September 21, 1989.
James A. Hightower, Charles J. Kahn, Jr. and Robert M. Loehr of Levin, Middlebrooks, Mabie, Thomas, Mayes & Mitchell, P.A., Pensacola, for plaintiff-appellant.
Glenn Waddell of Waddell & Ready, P.A., Auburndale, for defendants-appellees.
GRIMES, Justice.
Pursuant to section 25.031, Florida Statutes (1987), and Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.150, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has certified to this Court a question involving an interpretation of the Florida Wrongful Death Act. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(6), Fla. Const.
The facts which precipitated the question are set forth in the opinion of the court of appeals:
Wilcox v. Leverock, No. 88-3248, slip op. at 3-4 (11th Cir. Oct. 17, 1988).
The certified question reads:
Id. at 5.
Under section 768.21(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1983), the personal representative in this suit was entitled to claim the "[l]oss of the prospective net accumulations ... which might reasonably have been expected but for the wrongful death, reduced to present money value." Net accumulations are defined in section 768.18(5) as follows:
The personal representative argues that by excluding from "probable gross income after taxes" only "income from investments continuing beyond death," the legislature did not intend to limit net accumulations to amounts of income earned by the skill or effort of the decedent. She further points out that gross income as defined by the Internal Revenue Code includes income from an interest in a trust. Appellees respond that the statute reflects an intent to limit the recovery of net accumulations to those investments depending upon the skill or effort of the decedent and point out that the act makes no reference to the Internal Revenue Code.
The words "net accumulations" first appeared as part of the comprehensive revision of the Wrongful Death Act accomplished in 1972. The 1972 revision to the act was largely the product of the Florida Law Revision Commission (FLRC). In analyzing the damages recoverable by a decedent's estate under current law, the FLRC report stated:
Florida Law Revision Commission, Report on Proposed Revision of Florida Wrongful Death and Survival Statutes at 30-31 (included in Volume 2 of Record on Appeal in Wilcox v. Leverock, No. 88-3248 (11th Cir. Oct. 17, 1988)) (footnotes omitted). As part of recommendations for revision, the FLRC report stated:
Id. at 44. The FLRC went on to recommend a definition of net accumulations which was adopted by the legislature with only minor revisions, and the statutory definition has remained unchanged.
With reference to net accumulations, it appears that the emphasis of the FLRC report was upon a decedent's propensity to earn and his subjective personality traits. By excluding investment income, it is evident that passive income which continues to accrue regardless of the skill or efforts of the decedent is not to be included. While the income from the trusts involved in this case did not derive from investments made by Ms. Jordan herself, the statute does not require that the investments be those of the decedent. However it is characterized, the trust income is undeniably passive income. As such, we believe that it is the constructive equivalent of investment income which is excluded from the term "net accumulations."
The obvious purpose of allowing a personal representative to recover net accumulations is to preserve what has been lost by the decedent's untimely death. Monies which would have accumulated as a result of the skill or efforts of the decedent are irretrievably lost upon death and are properly recoverable by the estate. On the other hand, the income derived from the trusts in this case is no different than income received from a certificate of deposit purchased by Ms. Jordan before her death. In either instance, the income continues beyond the decedent's death.
We note that in this case when Ms. Jordan died, the right to receive the income from one of the trusts passed to Edith Wilcox and the right to receive the income from the other trust passed to Edith Wilcox's daughter. Ms. Wilcox and her daughter are also the persons who will ultimately receive the proceeds of Ms. Jordan's estate. Thus, under the personal representative's interpretation of net accumulations, this would result in a double recovery. We do not suggest that these facts should control the interpretation of the statute, and we recognize that there could be circumstances where the residuals of the trusts might pass to persons unrelated to the decedent's estate. In either event, *1119 however, the income from the trusts continues to accrue even though the decedent has died.
We answer the certified question in the negative and return the record to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
It is so ordered.
EHRLICH, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, SHAW, BARKETT and KOGAN, JJ., concur.