Opinion ID: 2632236
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Other Damage Claims

Text: The special verdict form asked the jury to determine whether Stoyer's negligence was a legal cause of the damages to Grant and her husband. The jury answered: No. Because we hold that the jury had to find that the accident caused Grant to suffer pain and suffering, we must remand for a new trial on all the damages properly requested by the Grants. With one possible exception discussed in the next paragraph, there must be a new trial as to each of her damages claims because we must assume that the jury, which could not rationally have declined to award Grant any damages for pain and suffering, did not rationally consider her other damages claims, either. Therefore, we need not review the evidence to determine whether it would support a finding that Stoyer's negligence was not a legal cause of any other damages claimed by Grant. The one possible exception is Grant's mileage claim. Grant argues that she was entitled to recover the expense of driving from her Salcha home to Fairbanks for treatment. She asserts that the failure to award any mileage damages indicates that the jury was swayed by passion and prejudice. There was apparently little dispute that she had incurred some driving expense. But this was an item of economic loss, and Jury Instruction No. 19 described her claim for economic damages only in terms of her wage loss claim. Grant apparently did not request an instruction describing any claim for mileage expenses. She does not argue that Instruction No. 19 erroneously described her economic damages claim exclusively in terms of wage loss. On remand, the court must determine whether she preserved a mileage claim at the first trial. If she did not, she may not seek a mileage award at the second trial. And, given the instructions, the jury's failure to award mileage does not indicate passion or prejudice against Grant.