Court Opinion

ID: 9650214
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:27:07.573012+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:19.044732
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
This case was originally assigned to me. I submitted the following opinion as a majority opinion, for which there were insufficient votes. This is now submitted as a dissent.
On June 2, 1969, decedent, a patient at defendant Mercy Catholic Medical Center (herein referred to as “defendant hospital”), suffered a cardiac respiratory arrest during preoperative preparation for a tonsillectomy. Decedent suffered brain damage from said arrest and this brain damage eventually caused his death on July 23, 1969.
Plaintiff, decedent’s father, filed suit against defendant hospital in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, alleging that defendant hospital was negligent in its treatment of decedent. Defendant hospital joined Dr. Martin T. Brennan (decedent’s surgeon) and Dr. Josephine L. Go (dece*449dent’s anesthesiologist) as additional defendants. A jury trial commenced and at the completion of all testimony, the trial court granted additional defendant Brennan’s motion for a directed verdict. The case against defendant hospital and additional defendant Go was submitted to the jury which rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff against defendant hospital in the amount of $450,000 under the Survival Act.1 Additional defendant Go was absolved of all liability
Defendant hospital’s post-trial motions were denied by the trial court and defendant hospital appealed to the Superior Court, alleging 1) that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it could award damages to the plaintiff under the Survival Act for decedent’s “loss of life’s pleasures” and 2) that the trial court erred in refusing to allow defendant hospital to amend its complaint against additional defendant Go. The Superior Court held that the trial court did not err in refusing to allow defendant hospital to amend its complaint against additional defendant Go, but that the trial court did err in instructing the jury that it could award damages to the plaintiff under the Survival Act for decedent’s “loss of life’s pleasures”. Accordingly, the Superior Court granted a new trial, limited only to damages. Willinger v. Mercy Catholic Medical Center, 241 Pa.Super. 456, 362 A.2d 280 (1976). Both plaintiff and defendant hospital filed petitions for allowance of appeal to this Court; said petitions were granted.
In this appeal, plaintiff contends that the Superior Court erred in holding that the trial court acted erroneously in instructing the jury that it could award damages to the plaintiff under the Survival Act for decedent’s “loss of life’s pleasures”. The trial court’s charge read, in pertinent part:
“Here are three items to consider [under the survival action]. First, pain and suffering .
*450The second item is compensation for loss of future earnings for the working life expectancy of the deceased, less the probable cost of his maintenance reduced to present worth.
The third item, any loss that may have been sustained as a result of the loss of amenities or pleasures of life. Leonard [decedent] had a legal interest in a continuation of his life ... [If you find either defendant liable,] you can compensate the plaintiff, that is, Mr. Willinger, as the administrator of the estate, for the loss of those years of life which you determine the decedent might otherwise have spent on this earth. We are not talking about loss of life as such because loss of life is not compensable. What we are talking about is the loss of life’s pleasures.
I am not going to go into any great explanation on it. An individual has a right to enjoy life, to marry, if you will, to work, to enjoy hunting, enjoy fishing, enjoy watching ball games, even box lacrosse, if you want, all these sorts of things. And if that was cut off because of the negligent act of either or both of these defendants, which was the proximate cause thereof, you can make an award to Leonard Willinger’s estate for that loss.” (emphasis added).2
The Survival Act provides that “any right or liability which survives a decedent may be brought by . his personal representative ... as though the decedent were alive”. Act of April 18, 1949, P.L. 512, art. VI, § 603, *451as re-enacted, 20 P.S. § 3373. Although the Act does not define the types of damages which are available to the decedent’s representative in a survival action, this Court has held that the Survival Act is “intended to compensate the decedent’s estate . . . (for the) decedent's total disability.” Incollingo v. Ewing, 444 Pa. 263, 306, 282 A.2d 206, 228 (1971) (emphasis added).
We held in Corcoran v. McNeal, 400 Pa. 14, 161 A.2d 367 (1960) that a plaintiff’s loss of his ability to “enjoy” life can be considered by the jury in calculating plaintiff’s damages for pain and suffering.3 This method of calculating i. e. lumping “loss of life’s pleasures” with pain and suffering has created confusion. It is an attempt to mix together two separate items — how do you mix oranges and cats? The effect has been to blur each item’s uniqueness and significance. It has also resulted in a jury not being able to consider “loss of life’s pleasures” where an injured plaintiff is in a comatose state and hence has no pain or suffering. And finally, individuals who are victims of a tortious act which results in immediate death have not been able to be compensated for “loss of life’s pleasures” because they, too, have had no pain or suffering.
Therefore, I would hold that “loss of life’s pleasures” is a separate item of damage to be considered by the fact finder in arriving at a just and proper award to compensate all tort victims for their tort caused death or injury.4 “Life’s pleasures” include a consideration of, but are not limited to, the *452loss of the pleasure of obtaining a spouse, of raising children, of pursuing a vocation, of learning, of participating in social and sports activities and all those factors (physical, spiritual, mental and emotional) which the culture realistically provides for the particular injured or deceased victim. The trial court, the late Judge Donald Orlowsky presiding, properly charged the jury.
Defendant hospital, in its appeal to this Court, asserts that the trial court erred in ruling that the defendant hospital could not amend its complaint against additional defendant Go. Three days after the trial commenced and more than three years after the statute of limitations had expired, defendant hospital moved to amend its complaint against additional defendant Go. Defendant hospital’s original complaint against additional defendant Go alleged a cause of action based solely on Go’s individual negligence. In its attempted amended complaint, defendant hospital alleged that a nurse negligently treated decedent in defendant hospital while acting in her capacity as an employee of Go and therefore, Go was vicariously liable for said nurse’s negligence. Defendant hospital’s allegation of vicarious liability raised a new cause of action against Go and since the statute of limitations had already expired, the lower court properly prohibited said amended complaint.5 Kuisis v. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp., 457 Pa. 321, 325, 319 A.2d 914, 918 (1974).
The Superior Court’s order, remanding this case for a new trial on damages, should be reversed and the judgment of the trial court should be reinstated.
MANDERINO, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. Plaintiff was awarded $5,199.75 in stipulated damages under the Wrongful Death Act.

. Defendant hospital objected to the charge on “loss of life’s pleasures”. Plaintiff then requested the court to submit special interrogatories to the jury so that the jury would segregate any damages awarded for “loss of life’s pleasures” from all other damages. Counsel for defendant hospital objected to the special interrogatories and the court refused to submit the interrogatories. Plaintiff contends this should act as a waiver of defendant’s right to appeal the court’s charge because the special interrogatories would have allowed an easy cure to any possible error as opposed to the necessity of a new trial on the issue of damages if Superior Court is correct. Plaintiff is wrong. The record indicates that the judge would have refused the request for special interrogatories no matter what the defendant did. Finally, the waiver argument is very tenuous, at best.

. Usually after a trial court charges the jury in detail on pain and suffering, the judge then adds in passing a sentence about “loss of life’s pleasures”.

. This holding is in'accord with Feldman v. Allegheny Airlines, Inc., 382 F.Supp. 1271, 1299 (D.Conn.1974), aff’d in part, 524 F.2d 384 (2d Cir. 1975) (non-jury award of $100,000 for “the destruction of the decedent’s capacity to enjoy life’s activities” affirmed; remand for recalculation of lost net earnings) and Downie v. United States Lines Co., 359 F.2d 344, 347 (3rd Cir. 1966) cert. denied, 385 U.S. 897, 87 S.Ct. 201, 17 L.Ed.2d 130 (1966) (since plaintiff’s injuries reduced his life expectancy, he can be compensated for the “enjoyment of life” which he would have had during the lost years of life.)

. Defendant hospital contends, however, that additional defendant Go waived her right to object to defendant hospital’s untimely filing of the amended complaint because four years earlier, Go failed to move for a judgment of non pros against defendant hospital when the latter failed to timely file its original complaint. Defendant hospital’s contention is without merit.