Court Opinion

ID: 9724010
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:41:21.930745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:54.303407
License: Public Domain

SUNDBY, J.
(dissenting). Wisconsin's wrongful death statute, § 895.04, STATS., "has for its purpose the compensation of the survivors for the pecuniary bene*392fits which they would have derived from the earning power of the deceased if he had lived." Nichols v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 13 Wis. 2d 491, 497, 109 N.W.2d 131, 135 (1961). The way to analyze this case is to consider whether the children of Donald and Marilyn Schaefer have a cause of action under § 895.04 for the wrongful death of their parents. Clearly they do. The appropriate analysis therefore is whether American Family is entitled to offset, against the children's recovery, the benefit the children obtained from their parents' premature death because they were the beneficiaries of their father's life insurance policy. The real issue in this case is whether this is the kind of special benefit which may be set off in mitigation of the children's damages. It is distracting to analyze the issue in terms of "loss of inheritance."
The Restatement (Second) of Torts § 920 (1977) states the rule:
When the defendant's tortious conduct has caused harm to the plaintiff or to his property and in so doing has conferred a special benefit to the interest of the plaintiff that was harmed, the value of the benefit conferred is considered in mitigation of damages, to the extent that this is equitable.
However, "[d]amages resulting from an invasion of one interest are not diminished by showing that another interest has been benefited." Id., cmt. b. Plaintiffs' damages for the wrongful death of their parents may not be diminished by showing that their right to inherit has been benefited.
In Marciniak v. Lundborg, 153 Wis. 2d 59, 72-74, 450 N.W.2d 243, 248-49 (1990), the court concluded that the "benefit rule" found in § 920 of the Restatement should not be applied to the situation in which a healthy child was born to a mother subsequent to an *393allegedly negligent sterilization operation. The court concluded that it was not equitable to apply the benefit rule in the context of the tort of negligent sterilization. Id. at 73, 450 N.W.2d at 249. I conclude that it is not equitable to apply the benefit rule to relieve the under-insured motorist carrier of its contractual obligation. The children's right to inherit from their parents is not remotely connected to their right to recover for the wrongful death of their parents.
The "special benefit" rule is not, however, the same as the "collateral source" rule, which applies only when the injured party has been compensated for his or her damages from a collateral source. Here, there is no relation between the proceeds of the insurance policy on the life of the plaintiffs' father and the damages the children have sustained by reason of the wrongful death of their parents.
Without mentioning the collateral source rule, the New Jersey Supreme Court stated: "It has been held in numerous cases that it was error in an action for damages for wrongful death to admit evidence of the amount of insurance collected on the life of the deceased." Muradian v. Paganessi, 128 A. 158, 159 (N. J. 1925) (per curiam) (citing Brabham v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 220 F. 35 (4th Cir. 1914)).
American Family does not claim the right to offset against the children's damages the proceeds of their father's life insurance policy. It argues, rather, that the money those proceeds could earn should be determined and offset against the children's recovery. I see no conceptual difference between the life insurance proceeds and the amount of money those proceeds will produce over time.
The law applicable to this case is well summarized in Meyer v. Clark Oil Co., 686 S.W.2d 836, 839-40 (Mo. *394Ct. App. 1984) (Normile, Special Judge, dissenting). The majority decided the case in a few lines on procedural grounds and therefore the dissent contains the sole discussion of the factual issues. Judge Normile cites numerous cases for the proposition that "[t]he 'American' rule is that assets inherited from a deceased person do not diminish the damages suffered by his heirs from his wrongful death." Id. at 839. He states:
The modem authorities agree with the "American" rule. "The fact that one or more beneficiaries . . . inherits property from the deceased does not diminish damages recoverable." Restatement of Torts 2d, Damages, Sec. 925 Comment H, page 531 .... "In determining the damages suffered as a result of a tortious act ... an indirect benefit to plaintiff,... resulting from defendants wrongful act can not be set up in mitigation of damages." . . . Restatement of Torts 2d, Damages, Sec. 920A, page 514, Sec. 920b, page 510.
Id. (citations omitted).
American Family, as the Schaefers' underinsured motorist insurer, stands in the shoes of the negligent tortfeasor. I see no reason in equity or in law that it should gain a windfall simply because the life of the person killed by the tortfeasor was substantially insured. I therefore dissent.