Opinion ID: 2388031
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the tinchers' damages award

Text: The jury awarded to the Tinchers, inter alia, the following damages: (a) Funeral Expenses. $ 2,478.00 (b) Loss of services, society, comfort, work around the house, decedent would have provided his family (wife and children). $ 43,428.00 (c) Loss of services decedent would have contributed as a father to his children including guidance, tutelage and moral upbringing. $ 50,000.00 The trial court, in response to post-trial motions filed by the Tinchers, awarded the Tinchers a new trial on the issue of the value of lost household services of Mr. Tincher and Mrs. Tincher's loss of consortium. We affirm the trial court because we find the trial court's reasoning on this issue to be both thorough and sound. In so doing, we recognize that [a] verdict is set aside as inadequate when it is so inadequate as to indicate passion, prejudice, partiality, or corruption, or where it clearly appears from uncontradicted evidence that the amount of the verdict bears no reasonable relation to the loss suffered by the plaintiff. Slaseman v. Myers, 309 Pa.Super. 537, 540-541, 455 A.2d 1213, 1215 (1983) (citations omitted). Particularly where the motion for a new trial is predicated on an allegedly inadequate verdict, appellate courts will reverse the lower court's decision only for clear abuse of discretion because this issue is viewed as being peculiarly within the competence of the trial court. Palmer v. Brest, 254 Pa.Super. 532, 536, 386 A.2d 77, 79 (1978) (citing Wilson v. Nelson, 437 Pa. 254, 258 A.2d 657 (1969)). It is not disputed that expert testimony at trial established the figure of $43,428.00 as a reasonable value for the loss of Mr. Tincher's household services. However, no expert testified as to a figure which would compensate Mrs. Tincher for the loss of her husband's consortium. Under the wrongful death act, the widow is entitled to the pecuniary value of the society and comfort she would have received from her husband. Slaseman v. Myers, supra 309 Pa.Super. at 549, 455 A.2d at 1220. A surviving spouse cannot maintain a separate action for loss of consortium resulting from the death of a spouse but must recover damages for the loss of the deceased spouse's society in an action for wrongful death. Linebaugh v. Lehr, 351 Pa.Super. 135, 505 A.2d 303 (1986). We adopt the following analysis employed by the trial court as the basis for granting a new trial to the Tinchers, limited to a determination of the value of the lost household services of Mr. Tincher and Mrs. Tincher's consortium claim: The jury's choice of the exact number agreed upon by the experts demonstrates to this Court the jury's failure to award anything to Mrs. Tincher for her loss of consortium. While the children's intangible losses were covered in interrogatory 12(c), Mrs. Tincher's only chance for recovery of her intangible loss was in 12(b). The failure to award such damages could have been the result of the jury's misunderstanding their task as to 12(b), or it may have been a conscious choice to award her nothing. We find the latter highly unlikely. In either event, we find the award of no damages to Mrs. Tincher for her loss of consortium to be so inadequate as to shock this Court, and we find the injustice of the verdict stands forth like a beacon . . . Defendant Summa Corporation's main contention in opposition to a new trial on damages is that the jury's figure should not be disturbed because the amount awarded under 12(b) could have been a compromise figure. That is, the jury might have disbelieved both experts, and made their own calculation as to each component of those losses. We find it too much of a coincidence that the figure arrived at by the jury was $43,428.00, the exact dollar figure quoted to them and agreed upon by both experts . . . Op. of Trial Court at 21-22. The Tinchers also contend that the trial court should have awarded a new trial on the issue of damages for the loss of consortium suffered by the Tincher children. Under Pennsylvania law, a child can recover in a wrongful death action for the loss of companionship, comfort, society and guidance of a parent. Steiner by Steiner v. Bell Telephone Co., 358 Pa.Super. 505, 510, 517 A.2d 1348, 1356 (1986), aff'd. 518 Pa. 57, 540 A.2d 266 (1988). This element of damages has also been described as loss of guidance, tutelage, and moral upbringing. Buchecker v. Reading Co., 271 Pa.Super. 35, 57, 412 A.2d 147, 158 (1979). We agree with the trial court that the jury adequately compensated the Tincher children for the loss of the society of their father which was described under interrogatory 12(c) as including, but not limited to, his guidance, tutelage, and moral upbringing. We find no trial court error with reference to this element of the Tinchers' damages.