Opinion ID: 1608539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Correct Measure of Damages.

Text: Broadlawns asserts that the district court sanctioned the use of an incorrect measure of damages by submitting the Estate's economic damages claim to the jury premised on misguided testimony by the Estate's damages expert. As we have observed on numerous occasions, [o]ne of the elements of damage in a wrongful death action is the present worth or value of the estate which decedent would reasonably be expected to have saved and accumulated as a result of his or her efforts between the time of death and the end of his or her natural life had he or she lived. Iowa-Des Moines Nat'l Bank v. Schwerman Trucking Co., 288 N.W.2d 198, 201 (Iowa 1980); see also State v. Mayberry, 415 N.W.2d 644, 645 (Iowa 1987). Broadlawns believes that the Estate's expert improperly determined the present worth or value of the estate based solely on Jillene's earnings or wage loss, a practice this court condemns. See Booth v. Gen. Mills, 243 Iowa 206, 211, 49 N.W.2d 561, 563 (1951). However, we do not believe this practice was invoked in this case. A close reading of the expert's testimony indicates his conclusions were based on calculations that went beyond Jillene's earnings or wage loss: Q. Okay. Now earlier we talked about adjustments that needed to be made for taxes, consumption and the like. We all pay taxes, we all spend, we all spend on ourselves. After computing and deducting all of those adjustments, what have you computed would be the present value of the total future loss to Jill Long's estate as a result of her death? A. The total future loss would be 444,909scratch that $910. 4449I am stillsaying $444,910. Based on this testimony, the district court was correct in determining that this issue was properly submitted to the jury.