Court Opinion

ID: 9714840
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:46:58.951555+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:28.957904
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: Decedent lost his life in a motor vehicle accident when his rented camper-van and one of defendant’s semi-trailer trucks collided. Defendant admitted liability in the widow’s suit and the case went to trial solely on the issue of damages. The jury returned a verdict of $150,000 for decedent’s pain and suffering, $7,100 for his medical and funeral expenses and $8,336,000 for wrongful death, the total award being $8,493,100. It may be fairly said that the evidence at trial disclosed that the 32-year-old decedent was a fine young man and a father with two small children whose income was approximately $60,000 per year as an insurance salesman. He had the potential to increase his earnings. His life expectancy at the time of the accident was 39.4 years. His working life expectancy would have been something less. The majority opinion defines the issues on appeal as whether: (1) damages for future loss of society should be reduced to present cash value; (2) the jury award is excessive; and (3) the amount of the jury award was inflated due to errors that occurred during trial. Two things are apparent to me. First, that the widow and the children are entitled to a substantial verdict. Second, that the verdict which was returned was grossly excessive. One million dollars given to the plaintiffs and invested at 6% would produce an annual return of $60,000 throughout the 39.4 year life expectancy of the decedent. Then, at the end of his life expectancy, the $1 million would still be intact. Thus, taking into account the customary attorney’s contingent fee of one-third, a verdict of $1.5 million would have given the lawyer a $500,000 fee and the widow and children the equivalent of the father’s annual earnings plus a nest egg of $1 million to keep. What they got, however, was an award for $8,493,100. The only calculable economic injuries in this case were the medical and funeral expenses which totaled $7,100 and the loss of earnings. As already noted, the jury fixed the sum of $150,000 for the decedent’s pain and suffering. Thus, it is apparent that the bulk of the award, perhaps as much as $7 million, was for loss of society. This case is illustrative of the irrational tort system under which we operate. The problem goes far beyond whether damages for pain and suffering and damages for loss of society should be reduced to present cash value. More basic than that, the law falsely pretends that such sufferings have a cash value when they clearly do not. No one can deny the reality of pain and suffering. No one can deny the reality of emotional suffering and the feeling of deprivation upon the loss of a loved one. These are real losses and real suffering. But they cannot be quantified with a dollar sign. As was observed in 1986 by the West Virginia Supreme Court, “if the measure of damages were the value of a human life then, arguably, no jury verdict could be excessive. The death of a family member *** involves inconsolable grief for which no amount of money can compensate. Counsel’s suggestion that the [family] would not have traded [their child’s] life for $10 million is entirely accurate — but they would not have traded [their child’s] life for $100 million or even $1 billion.” Roberts v. Stevens Clinic Hospital, Inc. (W. Va. 1986), 345 S.E.2d 791, 800. By refusing to recognize any limits on such damage awards, litigants, with the assistance of their attorneys, are turning the court system into a giant gambling casino. Pain, suffering, or the loss of a loved one may produce incalculable wealth if only the person causing the injury is wealthy enough or carries enough insurance. Although these awards are passed off as compensation, they are really a form of punitive damages under another name. What we are witnessing here is a vast predatory movement of citizen against citizen, the magnitude of which is beyond calculation. All of this predation is taking place under the form of legal, political and governmental procedures. Though selected individuals are being made rich, most notably the plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers, society as a whole is crippling itself. No corporation is large enough, no individual is rich enough, no amount of insurance coverage is high enough to prevent a defendant’s financial destruction in a negligence law suit under existing standards. It is time for the courts to recognize that damages such as pain and suffering and loss of society do not have a quantifiable dollar value. If society is to allow compensation for such injuries, then society has a duty to limit recovery to some rule of reasonableness. This can be done by the State legislature with legislative limits or it can be done by the courts through ordering a reduction in jury verdicts by remittitur in appropriate cases. This is an appropriate case. The jury award is clearly excessive. While the exact dollar amount of the award may always be subject to disputation and is incapable of scientific measurement, I do believe that the jury award in this case should be subject to a remittitur of $6.5 million. That is to say, I would reduce the award of $8,493,100 to $1,993,100. Accordingly I dissent from the decision of the court.