Opinion ID: 1263019
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: survival of mrs. evans' claim

Text: Mrs. Evans' original complaint alleged claims against the Twin Falls deputies alleging, inter alia, false arrest, assault and battery, and violation of her constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. After her death, an amended complaint was filed, purportedly joining the Estate of L. Juanita Evans. [4] The district court dismissed these claims based on this Court's decision in Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 736 P.2d 1309 (1987), holding that the claims did not survive the death of Mrs. Evans. The court quoted from the Vulk case that, The philosophy, simply stated, is that an injured person who is dead cannot benefit from an award for his pain and suffering. 112 Idaho at 859, 855 P.2d at 1313. On appeal, Mr. Evans asserts that his wife's claims do survive and can be asserted by her estate, pointing to our holding in Doggett v. Boiler Engineering & Supply Co., 93 Idaho 888, 477 P.2d 511 (1970), to support his position. In Doggett we stated: We hold therefore that, to the extent that there has been alleged, and the appellant can prove, damage to the community by way of depletion of community assets, reduction of the ability of the community to earn income, costs and expenses chargeable against community property, and the general damages for pain and suffering, such cause of action survives the death of the deceased spouse... . 93 Idaho at 892, 477 P.2d at 515 (emphasis added). The district court rejected this argument based on our more recent holding in Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 736 P.2d 1309 (1987), wherein we stated: Therefore, an action for pain and suffering does not survive the death of the injured. 112 Idaho at 859, 736 P.2d at 1313. At common law if the victim of a tort died before he recovered a judgment, the victim's right of action also died. See Prosser & Keeton on Torts, § 125(a) (5th ed. 1984); Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 736 P.2d 1309 (1987); Moon v. Bullock, 65 Idaho 594, 151 P.2d 765 (1944); Russell v. Cox, 65 Idaho 534, 148 P.2d 221 (1944). Furthermore, at common law where a person's death was caused by the wrongful act of another, the relatives and dependents of the victim had no cause of action of their own. See The Genesis of Wrongful Death, 17 Stanford L.Rev. 1043 (1964); Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 736 P.2d 1309 (1987); Volk v. Baldazo, 103 Idaho 570, 573, 651 P.2d 11, 14 (1982) (We deem it well settled that statutes authorizing actions for wrongful death are remedial in nature, designed to alleviate the harsh rule of common law that if an injured person died, his cause of action ceases to exist.). I.C. § 73-116 provides that the rules of the common law are in effect in Idaho unless modified by other legislative enactments. See State v. Iverson, 79 Idaho 25, 310 P.2d 803 (1957). The common law rule precluding any claim on behalf of the relatives or dependents of a deceased person was modified in 1881 by the enactment of I.C. § 5-311, which provided: 5-311. Action for wrongful death.  When the death of a person ... is caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another, his heirs or personal representatives may maintain an action for damages against the person causing the death; ... . Statutes similar to I.C. § 5-311 have been enacted in nearly every other state and were modeled after the Lord Campbell's Act, adopted in England in 1846. See McCormick, Damages § 93 (1982). [5] However, the Idaho legislature has not enacted any statute specifically abrogating the common law rule of non-survival of causes of action ex delicto in cases where the victim dies before recovery. In Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 859, 736 P.2d 1309, 1313 (1987), the case relied upon by the trial court in dismissing the survival claim of the estate of Mrs. Evans, the Court held that tort actions for pain and suffering [do] not survive the death of the injured. Appellant nevertheless argues that the legislature has abrogated the common law rule of non-survivability of tort actions in a husband-wife community property setting. Thus, appellant argues that the decision of this Court in Doggett v. Boiler Engineering & Supply Co., 93 Idaho 888, 477 P.2d 511 (1970), modified the common law rule in a community property setting, such as is alleged to have existed between Mr. and Mrs. Evans in this case. Doggett did, indeed, find an implied modification of the common law rule based upon I.C. § 32-906, which statute the Court in Doggett assumed mandated that damages for pain and suffering were community property, and therefore the surviving spouse had a property interest in that pain and suffering and, to that extent, the claim for pain and suffering survived the death of the injured party because the claim was also the property of the surviving spouse. The Court in Doggett purported to overrule the contrary case of Moon v. Bullock, supra , stating that to the extent that [ Moon ] suggests that an action ex delicto abates upon the death of a plaintiff in a case such as presented here, it is overruled. 93 Idaho at 890, 477 P.2d at 513 (emphasis added.) However, the Court in Doggett incorrectly assumed that general damages for pain and suffering are a community asset in which the surviving spouse has a property interest, and therefore upon the death of the injured spouse does not abate. In the subsequent case of Rogers v. Yellowstone Park Co., 97 Idaho 14, 20, 539 P.2d 566, 572 (1975), this Court held that general damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress [are] the injured spouse's separate property, not community property. The Court in Rogers overruled, sub silentio, that part of the Doggett opinion which held that I.C. § 32-906 provided that pain and suffering was community property rather than the separate property of the injured spouse. The Rogers case rejected the rationale of the Doggett decision, and accordingly, Doggett does not support appellant's claim. As this Court recognized in Vulk v. Haley, 112 Idaho 855, 859, 736 P.2d 1309, 1313 (1987), [A]n action for pain and suffering does not survive the death of the injured. Consequently, the district court did not err in applying our recent decision in Vulk v. Haley , and dismissing any survival claim of the estate of Mrs. Evans on the basis that her claims did not survive her death. [6]