Court Opinion

ID: 9543073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:41:47.863883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:38.100232
License: Public Domain

PRATT, Chief Justice
(concurring and dissenting).
I am of the opinion that we should go farther than reduce the verdict in this case. We should grant the new trial without the privilege of accepting a reduced verdict.
It is contended by appellant that the trial court erred in giving instruction No. 16, in that the instruction as given permitted the jury to award damages to the plaintiff based upon future pain and suffering and future loss of bodily function when in fact there is no evidence indicating any *93likelihood or probability or even possibility, that such pain and suffering would be occasioned to the plaintiff.
Instruction No. 16, as to this point reads as follows:
“* * * In determining the amount of such damages, you are instructed that plaintiff is entitled to compensation for all pain and suffering, if any, both mental and physical, -which he has endured since the time he sustained his injuries and that he will probably endure in the future; in determining compensation for pain and suffering, if any, you may take into consideration its duration and its severity. The law furnishes no way by which to measure what is reasonable compensation for mental and physical pain and suffering, but it is left to the sound judgment and discretion of the jury trying the case to determine from a preponderance of the evidence what is reasonable compensation to compensate the plaintiff for any physical or mental pain and suffering he has endured or will probably endure in the future. * * *”
This court has laid down the rule in Utah relative to instructions on future pain and suffering in the case of Picino v. Utah-Apex Mining Co., 52 Utah 338, 173 P. 900. 902, as follows:
“Some of these authorities apparently support appellants’ contention, while others are clearly distinguished from the present case. We think there is a clear distinction between that which ‘may happen’ and that which ‘will probably happen.’ The former may imply a mere possibility, while the latter implies that which is likely to happen. This distinction, in effect, is recognized by many of the authorities. The rule invoked by appellants (reasonably certain rule) calls for a higher degree of certainty than is ordinarily required in civil cases. It is quite true [that] the jury should not be permitted to indulge in mere speculation in endeavoring to determine the rights of litigants. It does not follow, however, that because they cannot demonstrate their conclusions with mathematical precision that therefore their conclusions are invalid. Even in attempting to determine the damages already sustained in cases of this kind, jurors, in the very nature of things, are confronted with more or less uncertainty. That which is most likely, or that which is probable in the light of all the evidence, is oftentimes the only practical guide. If a higher degree of certainty than this is required, it is manifest that great hardship and injustice will result in many cases. Of course, the probability here referred to should not be a mere conjectural probability, but one based on evidence. The jury, whose duty it is to ascertain and declare the truth from conflicting testimony, should accept that which is probably true as against that which is less probable. In doing so the juror keeps within the law applicable to civil cases. He should accept that which he believes to be true, notwithstanding it may be more or less uncertain.”
*94An annotation in 81 A. L. R. 423, collects and analyzes the cases adopting the different rules as to what degree of certainty should be included within the instructions to the jury.
The instruction given in this case was to the effect that the jury should determine from a preponderance of the evidence what is reasonable compensation for both mental and physical pain and suffering, if any, plaintiff “will probably endure” in the future. All references to future pain and suffering, or future loss of bodily function, in the instruction are couched in terms of what the plaintiff “will probably endure.” Thus, the court has instructed substantially in the manner approved in the Picino case where the phrase under question was almost identical. The serious question raised by the appellant however, is not as to what type of instruction is proper as indicating the degree of proof necessary in order that a recovery for future pain and suffering may be granted, but rather is as to whether there was any evidence introduced in this case which would justify the court in giving any instruction at all on damages for future pain and suffering. It is the contention of the appellant that there is no evidence from which a jury could find future pain and suffering to justify the giving of an instruction which would allow the jury to even consider these items as an element of damages.
Dr. Anderson testified that in about 5 to 10% of the cases, incisional hernias follow operations; that he examined plaintiff December 15, 1947, and examined his abdomen and that it was completely healed and there were no complaints; that earlier, plaintiff had complained of pain which came chiefly because of the method of overlapping the fascia which was adopted in order to strengthen the closing of the incision, and that he would expect this pain to go away as the abdominal walls adjusted to the change. After this last operation the doctor considered plaintiff completely healed.
*95On the question of recurrence and future injury Dr. Anderson testified:
“A. In any hernia, the tendency to recur is considerable. This man developed a hernia from his incision. We wanted to safeguard any future development of hernia at this site, and that was the reason we imbricated or overlapped the fascia, to give us at least two or three lines of suturing so that it would be, I guess, ‘re-enforced,’ you might call it if you were sewing up your pants.”
“Q. What, in your opinion, might cause a recurrence in this case?”
“A. I believe the poor tissue, the poor fascia, the improper healing.”
No evidence appears in the record of any pain and suffering after December 15, 1947, which was the date of the last examination of the plaintiff as a patient by Dr. Anderson. It may be helpful to fix the relationship of this date to the other dates in the case. December 15, 1947, was some six months after the plaintiff had returned to work; more than nine months after the second operation; six months before this action was filed; and more than nine months before the case was tried. The doctor’s statement, based on his notes, with reference to the December 15th examination was,
“I examined his abdomen, completely healed, and there were no complaints.”
It was stipulated that plaintiff had lost $1,300 in wages while away from his work after the second operation. The verdict of the jury was for $12,500. Of the total verdict $3,500 was deducted, by the jury, for contributory negligence of the plaintiff, leaving a net verdict of $9,000. If the jury followed the instructions as given, then they no doubt considered the question of future pain and suffering and. future loss of bodily function, yet, as we have indicated, there is no evidence in the record to show any reasonable probability that plaintiff will undergo any future pain and suffering. Had there been evidence of pain and suffering at the time of trial, and a history of pain and suffering leading up to the time of trial, then possibly this instruc*96tion could be sustained, absent any testimony as to the likelihood of future pain and suffering, since it might then have been fairly inferable that future pain and suffering would result. Loper v. Morrison, 23 Cal. 2d 600, 145 P. 2d 1. Although there is also authority to the contrary, see: Shulz v. Griffith, 103 Iowa 150, 72 N. W. 445, 40 L. R. A. 117. As indicated, however, the record is silent as to any pain suffered at the time of trial or even several months before, and the doctor’s testimony seems to negative the existence of pain or suffering after December 15, 1947. At the time this case was tried plaintiff had been back to work some 15 months, and there is not the slightest hint that he has suffered pain or inconvenience past the time it took for the abdominal walls to adjust and the ordinary post-operative effects to wear off.
If the injury to the plaintiff had been one of an objective nature, that is, one from which the permanency was obvious, and from which the jury in the exercise of common sense could say future pain and suffering would probably occur, then the instruction on future pain and suffering might be sustained absent any direct testimony. Prettyman v. Tropkis, (Del.) 9 W. W. Harris 568, 3 A. 2d 708. Had there been a loss of a member, or crippling of a member, or disfigurement, or anything of that nature, for example, the jury could, by observing the injury’s existence, have inferred that future pain and suffering probably would occur. Nothing of this nature is presented, however, in the instant case. To the contrary, we have the evidence indicating a complete healing several months prior to this action, and that Duffy had returned to doing the same type of work as before and had been engaged for more than fifteen months at the time of trial.
The record in this case seems to bring the case fairly within the rule announced in 15 Am. Jur. 814, Sec. 375, as follows:
*97“The court cannot * * * properly give an instruction as to the recovery of damages for future pain and suffering, in the absence of any evidence to warrant it.”
See also: Wheeler v. City of Boone, 108 Iowa 285, 78 N. W. 909, 44 L. R. A. 821; Sherman v. Frank, 63 Cal. App. 2d 278, 146 P. 2d 704; Cookman v. Caldwell, 64 Colo. 206, 170 P. 952; 25 C. J. S., Damages, p. 885, § 185. Whether the amount of proof may perhaps be of a lesser degree under the Picino case, supra, does not change the requirement that there must be evidence from which the jury could reasonably find that plaintiff will probably endure such pain and suffering, before such an instruction is authorized. No such evidence exists in this case, and therefore the instruction is erroneous.
The verdict in this case is excessive. I am at loss to account for it without concluding that the jury did consider the matter of future pain and suffering and gave considerable weight to those elements. In other words, the size of the verdict is rather convincing of the belief that the jury did consider these matters when they should not have done so; and included in their verdict a substantial sum based thereon. The defendant has been prejudiced by this erroneous instruction. To merely reduce the verdict is, I believe, assuming that the amount of the verdict would have been approximately the same as it was, had the jury not been instructed as to future pain and suffering — in other words, without considering future pain and suffering. We have no foundation for such an assumption.