Court Opinion

ID: 9768221
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:51:05.454765+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:38.253453
License: Public Domain

RAY, Justice,
concurring.
I concur with the opinion of this Court. It is a rare occasion for this Court to reduce a jury verdict, but our reduction of the damages from $65,000.00 for pain and suffering to the sum of $30,000.00 still leaves the award as the highest ever sustained by an appellate court in this State for a minor child in a death case though it is not the highest award in the nation. 49 A.L.R.3d 934 (1973).
An eminent Texas jurist, T. C. Chadick, once said:
“In a world so full of pain and suffering it is strange that no one has perfected a gauge that will accurately measure its value. . . .” Texarkana Bus Company v. Carter, 301 S.W.2d 300 (Tex.Civ.App. Texarkana 1957, writ ref’d n. r. e.).
While I am always reluctant for this Court to substitute its judgment for that of the jury, it does seem that $30,000.00 is an adequate award for two minutes of pain and suffering in a death case. In light of all the facts and circumstances in this case, this Court has concluded that such amount is reasonable compensation for the pain and suffering incurred by this small child. Flanigan v. Carswell, 159 Tex. 598, 324 S.W.2d 835, 841 (1959).