Court Opinion

ID: 9759056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:01:47.273058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:58.619035
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. Although recovery will not be denied merely because the amount of damages is hard to determine, damages must not be left to speculation and conjecture. Vowell v. Fairfield Bay Comm. Club, Inc., 346 Ark. 270, 58 S.W.3d 324 (2001); Dawson v. Temps Plus, Inc., 337 Ark. 247, 987 S.W.2d 722 (1999). I agree with the majority opinion that this case must be remanded for a new hearing on damages. It is well settled that the mere fact that a plaintiff has incurred medical expenses and the defendant’s liability has been established does not automatically translate into a damage award equal to those expenses. See Young v. Barbera, 366 Ark. 120, 233 S.W.3d 651 (2006) (Glaze, J., dissenting)1; Depew v. Jackson, 330 Ark. 733, 957 S.W.2d 177 (1997). The damages awarded could be less. For example, assuming a plaintiff put on actual evidence that he had $500,000 in damages, the trial court, sitting as fact-finder, could award $500,000, or even less, so long as the award of damages is reasonable. Fiere, the amount of damages awarded was unreasonable, given the scant evidence and testimony introduced at the hearing on damages. No proof was introduced at that hearing to support the $500,000 award, other than the Joneses’ attorney’s suggestion that such an amount would be “fair and reasonable.” As the majority notes, evidence of future pain and suffering must be established with reasonable certainty and must not be left to speculation and conjecture on the part of the fact-finder. See Volunteer Transport, Inc. v. House, 357 Ark. 95, 103, 162 S.W.3d 456, 461 (2004). Here, neither expert testimony nor other objective lay testimony was offered by the Joneses to corroborate the claims presented to the trial court. Where the record is silent as to how the trial court arrived at the amount of damages, as was the situation in both this case and the Volunteer Transport case, the award of an unreasonably large amount of damages must be reversed.   In the Young case, the plaintiff claimed medical expenses arising from chiropractic treatments she incurred as a result ofinjuries sustained in a fight with a friend. The trial court agreed that the plaintiff was entitled to recover the chiropractic expenses, but did not award the full amount the plaintiff requested, because, after questioning the plaintiff about the nature and extent of her injuries, the court found the plaintiff and her chiropractor were not entirely credible.