Opinion ID: 484641
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Proper Discount Rate

Text: 78 At trial, Woodling's expert testified that the present value of an award of damages should be calculated by using a one percent discount rate. The trial court instructed the jury that it should determine what figure was appropriate and that the decisions of this Court had suggested that a 1 1/2 to 2 percent rate would be appropriate. Woodling contends that the instruction was error and that the jury should have been told to accept her expert's one-percent figure. We disagree. 79 On damages issues as on liability issues, the trier of fact need not accept expert testimony even if uncontradicted. See, e.g., Sartor v. Arkansas Natural Gas Corp., 321 U.S. 620, 627-28, 64 S.Ct. 724, 728-29, 88 L.Ed. 967 (1944); The Conqueror, 166 U.S. 110, 131-33, 17 S.Ct. 510, 518-19, 41 L.Ed. 937 (1897); Commercial Casualty Ins. Co. v. Roman, 269 N.Y. 451, 456-57, 199 N.E. 658 (1936). Thus, it was not error to refuse to instruct the jury that it must accept Woodling's expert's view. 80 Further, since the court clearly instructed the jury that it was free to determine what was the appropriate rate and to use that rate, it was not error to state that a 1 1/2 to 2 percent rate had been approved by this Court. See McCrann v. United States Lines, Inc., 803 F.2d 771, 775 (2d Cir.1986) (in cases governed by federal law, trier of fact applying an adjusted discount rate [is] free to use 2% where the evidence of a more appropriate rate is unconvincing); Doca v. Marina Mercante Nicaraguense, S.A., 634 F.2d 30, 34-40 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 971, 101 S.Ct. 2049, 68 L.Ed.2d 351 (1981). It is clear that under New York law, in computing damages for wrongful death or diminished earning capacity resulting from injury, lost future earnings are discounted, O'Brien v. O'Brien, 66 N.Y.2d 576, 588, 498 N.Y.S.2d 743, 749, 489 N.E.2d 712, 718 (1985); see Richards v. South Buffalo Ry Co., 54 A.D.2d 310, 314, 388 N.Y.S.2d 479, 482 (4th Dep't 1976); Zainovich v. American Airlines, Inc., 26 A.D.2d 155, 159, 271 N.Y.S.2d 866, 871 (1st Dep't 1966) (Breitel, J.); Greck v. New York Central R.R. Co., 21 A.D.2d 776, 777, 250 N.Y.S.2d 992, 993 (1st Dep't 1964) (reversing for failure to discount to present value), and though the New York Court of Appeals has not yet ruled what the discount rate as adjusted for inflation should be, we have seen no reason to expect that the state courts would use a rate lower than two percent, cf. Richards v. South Buffalo Ry. Co., 54 A.D.2d at 314, 388 N.Y.S.2d at 482 (using 4% discount rate). Thus, it was not error for the district court to allow use of the two-percent rate instead of the one-percent rate advocated by Woodling's expert. 81 We have considered plaintiff's other challenges to the discount rate instruction and find them to be without merit. 82