Title: Flowers, Administratrix v. Marshall, Administrator

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

208 Kan. 900 (1972)
494 P.2d 1184
JANET FLOWERS, Administratrix of the Estate of Elva L. Brockman, Deceased, Appellant,
v.
HERBERT A. MARSHALL, Administrator of the Estate of Frank W. Frombaugh, Deceased, Appellee.
No. 46,451

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed March 4, 1972.
John E. Shamberg, of Schnider, Shamberg and May, of Kansas City, argued the cause and was on the brief for the appellant.
Frank W. Saunders, Jr., of Wallace, Saunders, Austin, Allen, Brown and Enochs, of Overland Park, argued the cause and was on the brief for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
HARMAN, C.:
This is an interlocutory appeal in a survival action brought on behalf of the estate of plaintiff's deceased who died from injuries caused by the negligence of defendant's deceased.
In a pretrial order the trial court ruled that future lost earnings could not be recovered as an element of damages, holding that damages for such item could only be recovered up to the time of death.
The trial court found that the ruling involved a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that an immediate appeal may materially advance the termination of the litigation, pursuant to K.S.A. 60-2102 (b). Upon plaintiff's application to this court under our *901 Rule 5 relating to appellate practice permission was granted to appeal from the order.
As authorized by Rule 6 (o) the parties have submitted an agreed statement upon which the appeal is presented, which reads:
...
By way of further background helpful to an understanding of the entire situation the record on appeal reveals that plaintiff's deceased, Elva L. Brockman, lived approximately one hour following the collision, then died as a result of the injuries sustained in the collision. During the period she lived after the collision she was conscious and experienced pain and suffering. As indicated, plaintiff, *902 a daughter of Mrs. Brockman, has brought two actions as a result of her mother's injuries and death: This proceeding, a survival action pursuant to K.S.A. 60-1801, as administratrix of her mother's estate for damages in the sum of $146,000 sustained as a result of the injuries; and another, a wrongful death action pursuant to K.S.A. 60-1901, et seq., in behalf of the next of kin for their damages in the sum of $37,059.93 for the mother's death.
The appeal presents a single question  whether recovery may be had in a survival action for loss of earnings and earning capacity beyond the time of the decendent's death where the death was caused by the defendant's negligence? The precise issue is one of first impression here.
K.S.A. 60-1801 provides in pertinent part:
Our wrongful death statute, K.S.A. 60-1901, provides:
K.S.A. 60-1902 provides:
K.S.A. 1969 Supp. 60-1903, in effect at the time of Mrs. Brockman's death, fixed the maximum amount of damages recoverable at $35,000.
K.S.A. 60-1904 provides:
K.S.A. 60-1905 provides for an apportionment among the heirs of any amount recovered to be made by the trial court according to the loss sustained by each.
The trial court held that under the survival statute recovery is limited to losses of the victim prior to his death, that is to say, recovery is permitted only for elements of damage occurring prior to death, including the decedent's pain and suffering, medical expenses and loss of time and earnings from the date of injury to the date of death.
In its rationale the trial court pointed out that Kansas is one of a few remaining states which still maintains by statute an arbitrary ceiling on the amount recoverable in a wrongful death action, albeit that limitation has been periodically increased. The court expressed concern that if future earnings beyond the time of death were permitted to be recovered in a survival action there could be a duplication of recovery and the effect would be to circumvent the legislative limitation prescribed in the wrongful death statute, considering the two statutes as a part of a single legislative plan or in pari materia.
Plaintiff-appellant contends 60-1801 places no limitation on the damages recoverable; that it simply states the action survives; it preserves the right to claim all damages her decedent would have had had she lived, and the event of death has no bearing on those damages.
In support appellant points to the following language used in Prowant, Administratrix, v. Kings-X, 185 Kan. 602, 347 P.2d 254, (which on rehearing reversed the initial decision in the same case):
The Prowant decision on rehearing incorporated by reference the dissenting opinion contained in the first Prowant case, reported at 184 Kan. 413, 337 P.2d 1021. The dissent had this to say about the predecessor of our present survival statute:
The dissent contained language indicating our survival and wrongful death statutes were not to be considered in pari materia because they had been enacted ten years apart (p. 418).
Appellant also emphasizes certain language quoted in the dissent from an opinion by Justice Brewer in Hulbert v. City of Topeka, 34 Fed. 510, as follows:
Appellant further points to language found in Goodyear, Administratrix, v. Railway Co., 114 Kan. 557, 220 Pac. 282, respecting Lord Campbell's Act, upon which our wrongful death statute is patterned, as follows:
Nothing in the foregoing compels the conclusion sought by appellant, that is, that damages for all future lost earnings are recoverable in a survival action, for the reason that none of the cited cases was concerned with recovery of that item. In Prowant the ruling was simply that a cause of action for tortious injury survives death even though the death be the result of the tortious act causing the injury and may be maintained along with a wrongful death action. Resort to the survival action petition in that case discloses that damages were sought therein only for decedent's losses occurring between the time of injury and the time of death.
We are concerned here with determining legislative intent in the enactment of the two statutes  survival and wrongful death. Despite what might be otherwise inferred from certain language found in the Prowant dissent already referred to, we are convinced the two are in pari materia and should be construed together in an effort to ascertain what legislative pattern has been prescribed for recovery where a single tortious act results in injury and death. To be in pari materia statutes need not have been enacted *905 at the same time (2 Sutherland Statutory Construction [3d ed., Horack] § 5202, p. 537). In Thoman v. Farmers & Bankers Life Ins. Co., 155 Kan. 806, 130 P.2d 551, the court quoted approvingly this statement:
Do the two statutes in question relate to the same subject matter for our purposes here? It should be borne in mind we are concerned with recovery for loss of future earnings or earning capacity beyond the point of death. The survival statute, where applicable, abrogates the common law rule that a personal right of action dies with the person. It keeps alive in the name of the personal representative the decedent's own cause of action. Loss of earnings or earning capacity is recoverable by the decedent in his life time and should he live so long he might recover for that permanent total loss, based upon his life expectancy. On the other hand the decedent's heirs at law may recover for loss of support under the wrongful death act. It cannot be gainsaid that destruction of earning capacity may form the basis for the claim for this loss of support. Hence both statutes can be said to relate to the subject of loss of future earnings and earning capacity and to that extent they must be deemed to be in pari materia and subject to being construed together as complementary enactments.
A doubling up would be involved if recovery based on full loss of future earning capacity were to be allowed in both a survival and a wrongful death action, and this would be true even though the ultimate beneficiaries in the two actions might not always be the same. Such duplication would be punitive to the wrongdoer and we cannot believe the legislature intended such a result, keeping in mind the fact that the survival statute and the wrongful death statute were each enacted to supply a remedy which did not exist at common law, and where, as here, each cause of action is dependent on the same tortious act.
Historically the majority view in other jurisdictions has been that recovery for loss of earnings or earning capacity beyond the time of death was impermissible in a survival action although it must be recognized statutory provisions sometimes are distinctive in the various jurisdictions so as to account for the results reached. The general rule is stated in McCormick on Damages, § 94, p. 337, thus:
In an annotation commencing in 42 A.L.R. 187, the annotator comments:
Appellant acknowledges double recovery might be involved but asserts the problem can be avoided by the use of a limiting instruction at trial so as to prohibit duplication of damages but at the same time allow their full recovery. Indeed this approach has been taken in a few jurisdictions (see, e.g., Rohlfing v. Moses Akiona, Ltd., 45 Hawaii 373, 369 P.2d 96; Incollingo v. Ewing et al., Appellants, 444 Pa. 263, 299, 282 A.2d 206). However, from the standpoint of judicial management of two separate claims, it is readily apparent this approach may create as many problems as it solves. More importantly, we think resort to the practice of limiting instructions overlooks the essential nature of our survival and wrongful death statutes as they have traditionally been viewed.
The interaction between the two statutes, according to the majority rule already alluded to, finds expression in 25A C.J.S., Death, § 98, as follows:
This court has already dealt with an analogous situation. In Railroad Co. v. Chance, 57 Kan. 40, 45 Pac. 60, plaintiff's deceased, Finnegan, had commenced an action against his railroad employer for personal injuries allegedly sustained by him on December 1, 1890, as a result of its negligence. On October 18, 1891, he committed suicide. The action was revived in the name of his administratrix and trial was had. The trial court's instruction No. 21 dealt *907 with damages for diminished earning capacity. On eventual appeal respecting this issue the court held:
In reaching this conclusion the court said:
In Allen, Admr., v. Burdette, 139 Ohio St. 208, 39 N.E.2d 153, the action was for wrongful death and for personal injury under a survival statute, both arising from the same tort. The court held in the administrator's action under the survival statute that evidence of the decedent's prospective earnings had he lived the period of his normal expenctancy, as shown by mortality tables, was inadmissible because the right of recovery for earnings did not extend to loss of earnings extending beyond the time of death. The Ohio supreme court, citing our Railroad Co. v. Chance, supra, in support, said:
With the Chance rationale in mind, we see no sound reason to make distinction in survival actions between a situation where death results from independent causes and one in which the death results from negligence which can be the basis for a wrongful death action. There should be no greater recovery where one tortfeasor causes injury and death than where two tortfeasors separately cause those same casualties. A principal argument advanced by appellant for making a distinction lies in the fact there is a statutory ceiling on the amount of damages recoverable in a wrongful death action which conceivably could result unjustly in less than full recovery in a given case, but this situation properly must remain one for legislative redress.
Accordingly, we hold that in an action under the survival statute to recover damages for personal injury to plaintiff's decedent who died as a result of such injury, recovery may not be had for loss of earnings or earning capacity beyond the time of death.
The trial court reached the proper result and its judgment is affirmed.
APPROVED BY THE COURT.
PRAGER, J., not participating.