Court Opinion

ID: 9666990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:32:10.468217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:33.953079
License: Public Domain

Danhof, C.J.
Defendant appeals as of right from a Muskegon Circuit Court jury verdict which awarded damages to plaintiffs Gordon and Stephanie Rinard for the costs of raising their daughter Christine’s child, which they adopted. We reverse.
In May of 1983, Stephanie Rinard took fifteen-year-old Christine to see defendant because she discovered that Christine was sexually active. Christine was not pregnant at this time. On December 5, 1983, Christine was again taken to defendant who examined her regarding her possible pregnancy. Christine replied negatively when defendant asked her if she had engaged in sexual intercourse since the last time that he saw her. Actually, she had been having sexual relations with her stepbrother. Defendant incorrectly concluded that Christine was not pregnant at this time. On July 9, 1984, Christine gave birth to a normal, healthy baby which Gordon and Stephanie Rinard adopted.
Plaintiffs Gordon, Stephanie and Christine Rinard brought this medical malpractice action against defendant based on his failure to diagnose Christine’s pregnancy in December of 1983. Christine’s claim was dismissed with prejudice on motion of her own counsel prior to trial. Plaintiffs testified that Christine probably would have had an abortion if defendant had informed them that *290she was pregnant in December of 1983. The jury awarded damages to Gordon and Stephanie Rinard for the costs of raising the child. The lower court denied defendant’s post-trial motions.
We conclude that the child’s mother was the only plaintiff who could have properly brought a cause of action based on defendant’s failure to diagnose her pregnancy. She could have recovered the costs of pregnancy and birth, and related damages, but not the costs of raising the child. The mother’s parents could not maintain this cause of action for the costs of raising their daughter’s child, whom they adopted. Nobody, including natural and adoptive parents, can recover the costs of raising a normal, healthy child because those costs are outweighed by the benefits of that child’s life.
We resolve the primary issues in this case by addressing three questions: (1) Can a cause of action be maintained in Michigan for failure to diagnose pregnancy? (2) What recovery is available based on this cause of action? and (3) Can the child’s grandparents, who are also the adoptive parents in this case, bring this cause of action?
A cause of action can be maintained in Michigan for failure to diagnose pregnancy. In Proffitt v Bartolo, 162 Mich App 35, 46-47; 412 NW2d 232 (1987), lv den 430 Mich 860 (1988), this Court stated that as long as abortion remains an option allowed by law, physicians owe a duty to furnish patients with adequate information for them to be able to decide whether to choose that course of action. Proffitt was a wrongful birth case. The term "wrongful birth” is a shorthand name given to actions brought by the parents of a child born with severe defects against a physician, or other responsible party, who negligently fails to inform them in a timely fashion of the risk that the mother will give birth to such a child, effectively *291precluding an informed decision as to whether the pregnancy should be avoided or terminated. 162 Mich App 40. The instant case does not involve a wrongful birth cause of action. However, the claim asserted in this case is more analogous to that cause of action than to other causes of action such as wrongful life or wrongful pregnancy which Michigan courts have addressed. See Proffitt, supra, pp 40-41. This Court impliedly recognized a cause of action for failure to diagnose pregnancy in Clapham v Yanga, 102 Mich App 47; 300 NW2d 727 (1980), lv gtd 412 Mich 889 (1981), dis by stipulation 412 Mich 889 (1982). Our Supreme Court granted leave to appeal in that case and directed the parties to brief the issues of whether the defendant should be liable for damages for failure to diagnose pregnancy and, if so, how the damages should be measured. The appeal was dismissed upon stipulation by the parties.
We turn to the question of what recovery is available based on a cause of action for wrongful failure to diagnose pregnancy. The lower court instructed the jury to determine damages by applying the "benefits rule” which was set forth in Troppi v Scarf, 31 Mich App 240; 187 NW2d 511 (1971), lv den 385 Mich 753 (1971). Michigan courts have applied the benefits rule on numerous occasions. However, for the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the benefits rule should not be used to determine damages in this type of case.
Under the benefits rule, the trier of fact determines the amount of damages to be awarded by evaluating the benefits of having the child according to the circumstances of the case and subtracting the dollar value of those benefits from the dollar value of the injury to the plaintiff caused by the defendant’s tortious conduct. Troppi, supra, pp 254-257. In Troppi, the defendant pharmacist neg*292ligently failed to fill a woman’s prescription for birth control pills, resulting in the birth of a normal, healthy child. Under Troppi, the costs of raising a normal, healthy, but unwanted, child, is an element of gross damages. 31 Mich App 261. See also Green v Sudakin, 81 Mich App 545, 547; 265 NW2d 411 (1978), lv den 403 Mich 855 (1978). The Troppi Court noted that, in the great majority of cases, the birth of a healthy child confers so substantial a benefit as to outweigh the expenses of his or her birth and support. However, the Court felt that it could not say, as a matter of law, that a healthy child always confers such an overriding benefit. Troppi, supra, p 254.
Michigan is among the minority of states which allow the recovery of the costs of raising a child as an element of damages, offset by the benefits received by the parents from the parent-child relationship. In a substantially greater number of jurisdictions, courts have denied the recovery of child-rearing costs. See Morris v Sanchez, 746 P2d 184, 186-187 (Okla, 1987); Cockrum v Baumgartner, 95 Ill 2d 193, 197; 69 Ill Dec 168; 447 NE2d 385, 387-388 (1983), cert den 464 US 846; 104 S Ct 149; 78 L Ed 2d 139 (1983), and cases cited therein.
Courts have not allowed the recovery of the costs of raising a normal, healthy child as an element of damages for many reasons. Morris, supra, pp 187-188; Cockrum, supra, pp 198-199. We consider the best reason to be that the costs of raising such a child are outweighed by the value of that child’s life. In Rohm v Stroud, 386 Mich 693, 696; 194 NW2d 307 (1972), our Supreme Court stated that the value of a minor child’s services to a parent is at least as great as the amount expended by the parent on the child’s support, maintenance and education. In that wrongful death case, our Supreme Court further stated that par*293ents are at least entitled to the presumption that a child is worth his keep, and the negligent act which snuffs out their child’s life deprives them of services at least equal to the amount of their pecuniary outlay. 386 Mich 697.
The instant case does not involve a wrongful death claim. However, allowing the costs of raising a child as an element of damages logically requires the conclusion that the nonexistence of that child would be a benefit. Morris, supra, p 188. We agree with the reasoning of the Illinois Court of Appeals which stated:
The existence of a normal, healthy life is an esteemed right under our laws, rather than a compensable wrong. [Wilczynski v Goodman, 73 Ill App 3d 51, 62; 29 Ill Dec 216; 391 NE2d 479, 487 (1979).
In a proper hierarchy of values, the benefit of life should not be outweighed by the expense of supporting it. Cockrum, supra, p 201. A court " 'has no business declaring that among the living are people who never should have been born.’ ” Proffitt, supra, p 51, quoting Smith v Cote, 128 NH 231, 249; 513 A2d 341, 353 (1986).
Another reason for not allowing the recovery of child-rearing costs as an element of damages is that, to maximize their recovery under the benefits rule, parents must demonstrate that they did not want their child and that the child is of minimal value to them. Michigan should not allow " 'the unseemly spectacle of parents disparaging the "value” of their children or the degree of their affection for them in open court.’ ” Cockrum, supra, p 202, quoting Public Health Trust v Brown, 388 So 2d 1084, 1086, n 4 (Fla App, 1980). A related concern is for the child who may learn *294that his parents did not want him to exist and sued to have the person who made his existence possible provide for his support. Wilbur v Kerr, 275 Ark 239, 242-244; 628 SW2d 568, 570-571 (1982).
We do not dispute the fact that child rearing is a costly enterprise. We simply believe that the benefits of raising a normal, healthy child must be conclusively presumed to be greater than the costs of raising that child. As a matter of public policy, parents should not be able to recover the costs of raising a normal, healthy child as an element of damages. We would limit the parents’ recovery for a physician’s failure to diagnose pregnancy to the costs of pregnancy and birth, and related damages for pain and suffering, medical complications caused by the pregnancy, mental distress, lost wages, and loss of consortium. See Wilczynski, supra, p 63. These damages should not be offset with what the factfinder speculates to be the benefits of a child. The benefits rule should not be used to measure damages in this type of case.
We turn to the question of whether the child’s grandparents, who are also the adoptive parents in this case, can bring this cause of action. They should not be able to recover child-rearing costs as an element of damages for the same reasons that the child’s parents should not be able to recover those costs. Plaintiffs’ reliance on cases which have extended a physician’s duty to third parties is misplaced. Regardless of the existence of a special relationship and the foreseeability that the doctor’s failure to diagnose the pregnancy would result in someone’s having to provide for the child, the grandparents should not be able to recover damages because the benefits that they gain from raising the child outweigh the child-rearing costs. Further, making a defendant doctor liable to peo*295pie who voluntarily choose to raise a child, based on a determination that their choice was foreseeable, opens the door to claims in future cases by relatives or other people who could argue that they were foreseeable adoptive parents. There are many potential parents who would gladly adopt a normal, healthy child and not claim that they are injured because they must raise that child. Grandparents should not be allowed to adopt a cause of action by adopting their daughter’s child.
In Clapham, supra, a panel of this Court set forth the proposition that the only person who would profit from a holding that the grandparents are not entitled to damages would be the defendant doctor who would escape the consequences of his own negligence. 102 Mich App 60. We disagree. The appropriate consequences for a doctor who negligently fails to diagnose a pregnancy resulting in a normal, healthy child are to pay for the costs of pregnancy and birth, and related damages. The Clapham Court set forth the above-described proposition after explaining that guardianship with the grandparents was in the best interests of the child in that case. 102 Mich App 59-60. We recognize that in some cases such as Clapham, which involved an older child and different circumstances, adoption by the grandparents might be in the child’s best interests. However, the instant case involves a young child who will grow up in a household where her adoptive parents’ children are her natural parents. We question whether this situation is really in the child’s best interests.
Our decision that this case must be reversed makes it unnecessary for us to address defendant’s remaining claims concerning jury instructions and the admission of evidence.
We recognize that portions of this opinion could be interpreted as being contrary to portions of this *296Court’s opinions in cases such as Proffitt, supra, and Eisbrenner v Stanley, 106 Mich App 357; 308 NW2d 209 (1981), lv den 414 Mich 875 (1982). Both Proffitt and Eisbrenner allowed wrongful birth causes of action for children who were born with severe birth defects. We will continue to allow parents who successfully maintain a wrongful birth cause of action to recover for their extraordinary medical expenses and the extraordinary costs of raising the child, as well as the emotional harm they have suffered. Proffitt, supra, p 46. If changes are to be made in this area of the law, then they should be made by the Legislature or our Supreme Court. Proffitt, supra, pp 58-59. We question whether the benefits rule should ever be used when it requires that a value be placed on human life.1 We invite our Supreme Court to grant leave to resolve the issues raised in this case.
Reversed.
R.L. Olzark, J., concurred.

 I no longer maintain the position that the benefits rule should be used to measure damages in wrongful pregnancy cases. See Bushman v Burns Clinic Medical Center, P.C. (After Remand), 83 Mich App 453; 268 NW2d 683 (1978), lv den 403 Mich 850 (1978) (Danhof, C.J., dissenting).