Opinion ID: 1212962
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Is an Award for Loss of Enjoyment of Life Precluded by the Procedural Development of This Case?

Text: Appellant alleges that the award for loss of enjoyment of life was a special damage and, in contrast to a general damage, was waived because it was not specifically pleaded. We disagree and hold that loss of enjoyment of life is a general damage. Appellant cites to Henderson v. Coleman, 19 Wyo. 183, 115 P. 439, 448 (1911), for this definition of general and special damages: ... general damages are those which necessarily and by implication of law result from the wrong complained of, and special damages are those that are the natural but not the necessary result of such wrong... . In Hein v. Marcante, 57 Wyo. 81, 113 P.2d 940, 948 (1941), we elaborated on this distinction: ... What is this special damage which cannot be proved without being specifically alleged? There is certainly a lack of clearness in the authorities on the subject; but it seems to us that what are called `general damages,' as contradistinguished from `special damages,' are admitted in evidence under a general allegation  indeed, are inferred by the law itself  for the reason that they are the immediate, direct, and proximate result of the act complained of, as, for instance, an injury done to the property itself, or its value, by detention, etc.; while damages which, although the natural, are not the necessary, consequence of the act, being ... consequential in their nature, ... Under this distinction, it would appear that loss of enjoyment of life, flowing directly from injury sustained in the accident, is a general damage. The Supreme Court of Louisiana provides us with more precise authority for the proposition that loss of enjoyment of life is a general damage. In Anderson v. Welding Testing Laboratory, Inc., La., 304 So.2d 351, 352 (1974), they said: The trier of fact is granted much discretion in the award of general damages, i.e., those which may not be fixed with any degree of pecuniary exactitude but which, instead, involve mental or physical pain or suffering, inconvenience, the loss of gratification of intellectual or physical enjoyment, or other losses of life or life-style which cannot really be measured definitively in terms of money. .. . (Emphasis supplied.) Cited with approval in Boswell v. Roy O. Martin Lumber Co., Inc., La., 363 So.2d 506, 507. Also, in point is Sterling Products, Inc., v. Fields, Tex.Civ.App., 530 S.W.2d 602, 605 (1975), where it is said: ... The term `general damages' is applied to loss, damage or injury which is conclusively presumed to have been foreseen or contemplated by the party as a consequence of his breach of contract or wrongful act, whereas, `special damage' signifies injurious consequences which are not deemed as a matter of law to have been foreseen, ... Certainly loss of enjoyment of life is a consequence of an injury which the law would deem to be foreseeable. Appellant also urges that the conversation among the trial judge and the two counsel at the start of the trial prevents the award of compensation for loss of enjoyment of life inasmuch as plaintiff's counsel indicated that he was only pursuing certain claims among which was not a claim for loss of enjoyment of life. In evaluating this argument, we find Walton v. Atlantic Richfield Company, Wyo., 501 P.2d 802, 805 (1972), decisive. We said: Appellants' contention that the trial court was bound in determining the proper measure of damages to the theories of counsel and that this determination must necessarily include the value of the lease at the time of the loss does not consider the effect of Rule 54(c), W.R.C.P., which is as follows: `   Except as to a party against whom a judgment is entered by default, every final judgment shall grant the relief to which the party in whose favor it is rendered is entitled, even if the party has not demanded such relief in his pleadings.' We hold that the procedural aspects of this case do not preclude an award for loss of enjoyment of life.