Court Opinion

ID: 9642280
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:53:36.967249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:45.474757
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Wall v. VanMeter, 311 Ky. 198, 223 S.W.2d 734 (1949) has no application to the present case. Wall v. VanMeter applies when the jury has been instructed that, if it finds for the plaintiff, and finds he was injured, it shall award medical expenses and pain and suffering. I agree that the same principle applies whether the question involved is past medical expenses and pain and suffering, or future medical expenses and pain and suffering. But here the jury *256was instructed on future' pain and suffering, but not on future medical expenses. The jury was given a form of verdict with a space to award future medical expenses in the absence of any instruction on the subject.
Had the jury followed the instructions, it would have made no award for future medical expenses. We can only speculate as to whether the award of $10,000 for future medical expenses, an item of damages not covered by the instructions but for which a space was provided in the “Form of Verdict,” was in fact an award for future pain and suffering. No one can sort this case out. I would affirm.