Opinion ID: 1854130
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Were the damages awarded to Tony Jr., excessive?

Text: We agree with the trial judge that the jury's award of damages to Tony Jr., were not excessive. We follow the same standard of review in this instance as we did in affirming the determination of damages in regard to Smaha. Tony Jr., then twelve years old, was a passenger in the car and sustained some physical injuries in the accident. The side of his face was swollen and his eye was nearly shut. However, his principal claim for damages is based upon emotional injuries and mental distress that he suffered at the time of the accident and subsequent thereto. After the accident he saw his unconscious father and unsuccessfully tried to revive him. He testified that he  thought that his father was dead. He was taken to the hospital, where he was sick to his stomach, was violent, and required physical restraint. Commencing with the first night after his release from the hospital, he has frequently had terrible dreams and nightmares. He stated: I feel that something is going to happen and it ain't good either. Sometimes it is bloody and messy. It's awful to get these dreams. It scares me. Most of the time I wake up to my mother. I am all wet all over. They are I wouldn'tThey are very upsetting.... I feel really that something is going to happen. His mother corroborated the intensity and frequency of these dreams, that travelling now makes him nervous, and that since the accident he has had greater difficulty in concentrating on his schoolwork. Dr. Pawlisch diagnosed his condition at the time of his confinement after the accident as a hysterical reaction ... with the possibility of a little brain injury. There was testimony that the accident and the injury were the cause of the present symptoms and that they were likely to persist. There is no doubt, of course, that mental distress caused by the accident is properly compensable (see Prosser, Law of Torts (hornbook series, 3d ed.), Mental Disturbance, p. 346, sec. 55). There is ample evidence to support the judge's conclusion that Tony Jr., was emotionally injured by the trauma of the accident and that this injury persists and is both troubling and disabling. Two thousand dollars seems like a most modest sum for this injury.