Opinion ID: 2377626
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Conscious pain and suffering

Text: New Prospect contends that the damages award should shock the conscience of the Court and cause a new trial. It first complains about the $1,000,000 awarded for conscious pain and suffering by the decedent. The contention is that the evidence that Ms. Jones was conscious and suffering after the accident was tenuous and that the amount of the award must have been based on the misconduct of counsel causing prejudice on the part of the jury. Susan Humphrey testified that she arrived on the scene of the accident prior to the police and the emergency medical personnel. Part of Ms. Humphrey's testimony, as abstracted, follows: I went over to the car. Her head was bent over funny and she had blood coming out of her mouth. There was blood on her arms. I kept telling her to hold on, that the police and the paramedics had been called and would be there soon and God loved her. At some point she was moving her arms. I'm not sure why, but I told her to stop moving because she might hurt herself. At some point the blood stopped coming out of her mouth. She must have been swallowing it, because her breathing got really bad. It was hoarse and raspy. When I told her to stop moving, she did. She quit moving her arms and was still for me. Then when her breathing got really bad, I'd tell her to take a deep breath, and she would take a deep breath. Then she would go back to the shallow, raspy breathing. I'd tell her to take another deep breath a few seconds later and she would breathe again.... I had the definite impression that I was able to communicate with her.... When I told her to quit moving, it was like, OK, I've got your attention. You know, I can hear, and she would quit moving. It was like she was trying to let me know she could hear me or something. In view of that testimony, we cannot say the evidence was insufficient to show that there was conscious pain and suffering on the part of Ms. Jones or that the damage award in that respect shocks the conscience of the Court.