At her deposition, plaintiff admitted that her son, decedent John Coleman, did not have any dependants at the time of his death. Plaintiff testified that she only visited her son every few years, and that he never helped her with chores, never gave her investment advice, and did not regularly send her money. The decedent's third child, Duane Anthony, was raised solely by his mother, the custodial parent, and is currently 23 years old. The decedent's fourth child, John, was also raised by his mother, the custodial parent, and was over 18 years old at the time of his father's death. The trial of liability issues, which would entail the testimony of perhaps a dozen experts in various disciplines, will consume several weeks, while a damages trial will at most take one to two days.
Defendant further contends that discovery as to damages is essentially complete.
The discovery conducted to date, including plaintiff's deposition, answer to interrogatories, and plaintiff's damages expert's report, all support the concept of trying damages first so that the aviation defendants can make reasoned and informed assessments of their respective settlement postures before embarking on protracted and costly liability litigation. A one or two-day damages trial would be significantly shorter than a lability trial involving 11 separate and clearly distinct defendants with multiple expert and fact witnesses, which could reasonably take several weeks. Not only will a damages trial save judicial resources by avoiding potentially unnecessary discovery and trial preparation, it will allow the defendants to make reasoned settlement decisions. As such, bifurcation of the liability and damages issues in this tort action, with damages being tried first, would accomplish the twin goals of avoiding confusion and promoting judicial expedition and economy. In addition, plaintiff's survival claim, which involves a claim for the conscious pain and suffering experienced by John Coleman prior to his death, intimately and intrinsically involves the manner in which the aircraft accident occurred.