Court Opinion

ID: 9625213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:31:59.82989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:03.413395
License: Public Domain

Shulman, Judge,
concurring specially.
While philosophically I share the dissent’s concern over the use of expert testimony based on annual inflation factors, legal considerations compel me to join the majority.
1. Henry Grady Hotel Corp. v. Watts, 119 Ga. App. 251 (4) (167 SE2d 205) clearly holds that expert opinion testimony virtually identical to that in the case at bar (i.e., based on an annual wage increase factor) is admissible and may be presented for jury consideration when accurate. Moreover, the Henry Grady Hotel holding that the verdicts were not excessive as a matter of law necessarily approves of the use of the kind of statistical *499averages involved herein as competent and legal evidence that, if accurate, will authorize a verdict. See, e.g., Atlantic C. L. R. Co. v. Brown, 82 Ga. App. 889 (2) (62 SE2d 736) (if there is any evidence upon which the jury might hinge their finding, and this evidence is competent and legal, this court will not ordinarily disturb verdict as excessive). See also Leonard v. Kirkpatrick, 118 Ga. App. 277 (1) (163 SE2d 340) (jury may take inflation into consideration in awarding damages for loss of future earnings).
2. Recognizing that most expert testimony is to some degree speculative, the question presented here is whether the expert testimony in this case became inadmissible because the particular wage increase factor used (5% per year) rendered the estimates based thereon too speculative as a matter of law. I would not so hold.
Here, the expert gave the underlying basis which supported the annual wage increase factor used in his extrapolations and demonstrated his opportunity of forming a correct opinion. This evidence was legal and competent. It provided the jury with a means to ascertain with reasonable certainty the amount of damages. It was not, therefore, too speculative.
"[PJroper evidence of this sort should militate against arbitrary and capricious verdicts, and is therefore admissible under the exigencies of the case.” Henry Grady Hotel, supra, p. 257.