Opinion ID: 2332096
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tree Removal Evidence

Text: The defendant contends that the Court below erred in admitting evidence of loss of tree removal work in proof of damages in the nature of loss of future earnings. Such evidence was admissible. The plaintiff testified that he could no longer climb trees and at least one of the medical experts stated that such physical exertion was inadvisable, given the plaintiff's condition. The jury could reasonably conclude that Michaud had suffered a total loss of his earning capacity in this aspect of his work. The defendant further objects to this evidence, because it did not consist of actual bookkeeping entries of income actually received for tree removal work, but rather involved estimates thereof given by Michaud based on his records which indicated total receipts for individual jobs without breakdown respecting the tree removal portion of the same. Some other estimates or approximations rested on affidavits of customers disclosing the type of work Michaud had undertaken for them, from which he stated the proportion of the total receipts allocable to the tree removal part of the respective projects. There was no error in admitting such evidence. It is not disputed that Michaud had either performed or supervised all the paving and tree removal work, and, hence, had personal knowledge of facts on which to base his estimates. Customer affidavits merely served to refresh his recollection. Evidence of past earnings is, of course, relevant to the issue of damages from impairment of future earning capacity and such evidence need not be mathematically precise. The assessment of damages for impairment of earning capacity rests largely upon the common knowledge of the jury or other fact-finder, sometimes with little aid from the evidence; helpful evidence is admissible, although it does not furnish any mathematical valuation of the impairment. Goldstein v. Sklar, Me., 216 A.2d 298, 309 (1966). The fact that Michaud testified in terms of estimates of lost income from tree removal work, based on facts within his personal knowledge, did not impregnate his conclusory opinion with such uncertainty as to deprive it of probative value. Rather, although precluding exactitude, the term estimate, in its lexical meaning, conveys the idea in the user of calculating, computing, giving an approximation with respect to, amount, number, cost, or the like. To estimate does not import mere guesswork, but rather involves an approximate judgment. See O'Hehir v. Central New England Ry. Co., 152 App.Div. 677, 137 N.Y.S. 627, 633 (1912). There is no way to determine how much of the damage award is attributable to the loss of the plaintiff's tree work business. Strictly speaking, the recovery in a personal injury action is for loss or diminution of earning capacity. The element of damages in question is properly described as compensation for diminution of earning power, or conversely as the value of that part of the plaintiff's capacity to work and earn of which he was deprived. Doherty v. Ruiz, 302 Mass. 145, 146, 18 N.E.2d 542, 543 (Mass. 1939). Evidence of past earnings is admissible, because it provides the jury with a yardstick for measuring earning capacity. The issue is not, whether the loss of tree removal income, taken by itself, could support an award of damages, but, whether the evidence as a whole furnishes a reasonably accurate picture of what the injured party such as the plaintiff in the instant case could have earned, if he had not been disabled as a result of the accident. There was testimony that Michaud was a healthy, hard working man who rebelled at his forced idleness. The record also indicates that he was turning down requests for tree removals up until the time of trial, and that he had to drop customers which he formerly had serviced on a regular basis. These singular facts, in and of themselves, may disclose little, but together they serve as a practical and reliable guide to a commonsense evaluation of the plaintiff's earning capacity. Direct and specific evidence of the extent of the impairment, measured in money, is not necessary; it is not essential to recovery of damages for permanent disability that there be in the evidence for purposes of comparison proof of income before and after the accident in support of diminution of earning power.. . . The assessment of damages for impairment of earning capacity rests largely upon the common knowledge of the jury or other fact-finder, . . . Goldstein v. Sklar, Me., 216 A.2d 298, 309 (1966). The defendant contends that some tree removal jobs were mistakenly included by the plaintiff in his estimates for the years 1968 and 1970, when the evidence was that the work had been done in other years. Such inaccuracies may affect credibility, but it was for the jury to reconcile the plaintiff's testimony from an overall perspective. Resolving such inaccuracies into a reasonable determination of the plaintiff's loss of earning capacity by reason of his disablement to perform tree removal work would certainly not overtax the capabilities of the jury. See McKenzie v. Edwards, 140 Me. 33, 33 A.2d 412 (1943). The defendant asserts that he was prejudiced by the Court's refusal to give the following instruction: Unless you find that the amount of plaintiff's probable future earnings from the tree work can be determined with reasonable certainty as to amount, and unless you find that such work is so well established that it can reasonably be anticipated that such amounts would probably have been earned in the future, then plaintiff has not met his burden of proving damages with reasonable certainty. I instruct you that proof of the volume of tree work for but a single year is not legally sufficient to base an award for loss of earnings from such work. We disagree. A party is not entitled to have his personal formulation of the law read to the jury, provided the jury is otherwise adequately instructed. See Isaacson v. Husson College, Me., 332 A.2d 757, 762 (1975); State v. Smith, 65 Me. 257, 269 (1876). Also, a party is not entitled to have his requested special instruction given to the jury, unless it states the law correctly, it is supported by the facts of the case, it is not misleading or confusing, it is not already sufficiently covered in the given charge or unless the refusal to give it would be prejudicial to the requesting party. See Towle v. Aube, Me., 310 A.2d 259 (1973); Labbe v. Cyr, 150 Me. 342, 111 A.2d 330 (1954); Desmond v. Wilson, 143 Me. 262, 60 A.2d 782 (1948). A review of the given charge in its entirety plainly demonstrates that the jury was correctly informed on this aspect of the case. Towle v. Aube, supra, 310 A.2d at 266. The requested charge was incorrect in law in trying to disallow any award for loss of earnings from the tree removal work, should the jury have to base the same on a single year's earnings. Proof of the volume of tree removal work for a single year was competent evidence to go to the jury for its consideration, to be given such weight as the jury, in the exercise of good sense and sound discretion, thought such evidence was entitled to in its determination of the plaintiff's loss of earning power. Gorman v. Elizabeth-Union-Irvington Line, 105 N.J.Law 602, 147 A. 402 (1929). Furthermore, the record indicates that there was evidence of more than one year's volume of such work.