Emery v. Southern California Gas Co.
Emery v. Southern California Gas Co.
Opinion of the Court
The verdict of the jury, in this action for damages for wrongful death, was for plaintiff in the sum of $12,000, and judgment was entered in accordance with the verdict. Plaintiff appeals from that portion of the judg
Appellant contends that: (1) The trial court erred in refusing to receive the testimony of an actuary, and to receive annuity tables in evidence, in respect to the present value of the future loss of support sustained by the heirs of the deceased; and (2) the damages awarded were grossly inadequate in view of the undisputed evidence as to decedent’s earning capacity and loss of support sustained by his heirs.
Edwin Paul Emery, the deceased, was employed at the time of his death by the Consolidated Steel Corporation as a pipefitter. On September 16, 1943, in the course of such employment, he was removing a gasket from a hydraulic pressure pipeline in a butadiene plant, owned and operated by defendants Southern California Gas Company and Rubber Reserve Company. While he was performing that work at a place about 16 feet above a cement floor, a large quantity of water, which was expelled from the pipe under high pressure, blew him to the floor and killed him.
Plaintiff is the widow of the deceased and brings this action as administratrix of his estate. Deceased was survived by a daughter, 7 years of age, and 2 sons, 16- and 18 years of age. He had worked for Consolidated Steel Corporation approximately 7 weeks preceding his death and his monthly salary was approximately $600. Prior to that period of employment, he was employed by the California Shipbuilding Corporation, where his salary was between $300 and $400 per month. • Prior to that last mentioned employment he worked for a refinery about 10 years, starting with a salary of approximately $160 per month, and receiving increases in salary until the amount thereof was between $250 and $300 per month. He deposited his salary checks in a joint cheeking account with his wife, from which account their living expenses, insurance premiums, and payments on their home were paid.
The evidence shows that deceased was a good husband and an affectionate father. Plaintiff and deceased had been married approximately 8 years at the time of his death, and the daughter was the only issue of that marriage. His two sons were the issue of a former marriage. After plaintiff and deceased were married, the two sons resided with them about one-half of the time, and the remainder of the time they resided in a hoarding home, or with their grandmother, or
At the trial, counsel for plaintiff called an actuary as a witness and asked him as follows; “Are you able to state at this time what amount of money it would take, if invested at a given rate of interest, would yield a particular monthly return for a period of a specific number of years and all be used up at the end of that period ? ’ ’ Counsel for defendants objected to the question, stating “it is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial” and “is not the measure of damage.” The judge and the attorneys for plaintiff and defendants then went to the judge’s chambers in order to discuss the objection out of the presence of the jury. In chambers, counsel for defendants stated that he amended his objection “by adding that any such computation on the part of such actuary would not in any manner determine the measure of damage,” and “it would call for a conclusion of the witness.” He also said that he was not objecting to the qualifications of the witness as an actuary. Counsel for plaintiff argued that such testimony was offered to assist the jury in determining the present value of the future pecuniary loss sustained by the heirs; that the actuary, being an expert in his particular field, was able to testify as to certain facts and figures which were computations the jury could not make; that he expected to show, if permitted to further question the actuary, the amount of money which if invested at various rates of interest, namely, 3 per cent, 4 per cent, and 5 per cent, would yield a monthly income of various amounts, namely, $200, $300, and $400 over a period of 20 years, and over a period of 25 years, and all be used up at the end of those particular periods. He stated further that he had a chart which had been prepared by the actuary showing the present value of income payable each month for a period of 25 years with interest compounded annually at 3 per cent, 4 per cent, and 5 per cent, on monthly incomes of $200, $300, and $400. He also said that he had another such chart showing that kind of information for a period of 28.90 years, the life expectancy of deceased. He exhibited those charts to the judge and offered
Appellant contends as above stated, that the court erred in refusing to receive the testimony of the actuary, and in refusing to receive the charts in evidence. The objection to the question propounded to the actuary should not have been sustained. The annuity tables or charts should have been received in evidence, assuming that a proper foundation for their admissibility had been laid. "When the damages to be awarded for wrongfully causing the death of a person are compensation to designated relatives for prospective pecuniary loss, the gross amount thereof should be reduced to its present worth. (16 Am.Jur. p. 138.) It was stated in the case of Chesapeake & O. R. Co. v. Kelly, 241 U.S. 485, at page 491 [36 S.Ct. 630, 60 L.Ed. 1117] : ‘ ‘ [W] hen future payments or other pecuniary benefits are to be anticipated, the verdict should be made up on the basis of their present value only. We are aware that it may be a difficult mathematical computation for the ordinary juryman to calculate interest on deferred payments, with annual rests, and reach a present cash value. Whether the difficulty should be met by admitting the testimony of expert witnesses, or by receiving in evidence the standard interest and annuity tables in which present values are worked out at various rates of interest and for various periods covering the ordinary expectations of life, it is not for us in this case to say. Like other questions of procedure and evidence, it is to be determined according to the law of the forum.” (Italics added.) In the case of Yicksburg & Meridian B. B. Co. v. Putnam, 118 U.S. 545 [7 S.Ct. 1, 30 L.Ed. 257], in discussing the admissibility of standard annuity tables to show the present value of future loss of earnings, it was said at page 554: “In order to assist the jury in making such an estimate, standard life and annuity tables, showing at any age the probable duration of life, and the present value of a life annuity, are competent evidence. [Citations.] ” It was stated in Peters v.
The proposed evidence as to the present worth of future pecuniary loss was not conclusive evidence as to the amount of damages to be awarded. In determining the amount of damages, such evidence was to be considered with several other elements, such as the health, activity and occupation of the deceased, his earning capacity, and the various amounts which reasonably might be expected to be contributed by him-for support over the period the jury finds he would furnish such support. An instruction should be given, stating the restrictive significance of such evidence, to the effect that such evidence as to the present value of future pecuniary loss is not conclusive as to the amount to be awarded as damages, but is only one of several elements to be considered in determining the amount to be awarded.
When counsel for plaintiff was presenting his argument before the jury, he said that one of the principal factors to be determined by the jury was the pecuniary loss for future support sustained by the wife and children of the deceased; that in determining such loss it would not be fair to defendants to merely multiply the monthly or annual support by the number of months or years the jury believed he would have supported his heirs, because the amount of money awarded by the jury could be invested and would earn interest; that it was the jury’s problem to determine the present value of such future loss, that is what amount of money, if paid now, and invested would provide his dependents with support they had lost, and all be used up at the end of the time the jury believed he would have provided such support. He then stated further in his argument: “Now this determination requires the application of mathematical calculations which are too difficult for the ordinary person such
Counsel for plaintiff contends that the comment of counsel for defendant to the effect that he (plaintiff’s counsel) was guilty of “reprehensible misconduct” in stating, “Now the actuaries tell us—,” was improperly and unjustifiably made. He argues that since such comment was a part of a statement wherein defendants’ counsel objected to the argument and since the comment was followed by the ruling of the court sustaining the objection, the jury was thereby prejudiced against plaintiff’s counsel and caused to disregard his argument in respect to damages. Counsel for defendants having stated in chambers, as above mentioned, “Now I would have no objection to counsel using all of the computations and mathematical deductions he desires as a part of his argument to the jury,” counsel for plaintiff was justified in assuming that he could, without objection, use the computations of actuaries in his argument to the jury. Under the circumstances the comment of counsel for defendants should not have been made, and it was prejudicial to plaintiff.
The portion of the judgment from which the appeal is
Desmond, P. J., concurred.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent. The court properly excluded the testimony of the actuary. That testimony would have shown that it would take from $34,000 to $88,000, invested at 2 per cent, 3 per cent or 4 per cent, to return $200, $300, or $400 per month for a period of 25 years or a period of 28.9 years. Plaintiff makes conflicting contentions respecting the purpose of the offer of this testimony. It is claimed that it was evidence tending to prove some fact in the case, and it is also contended that it was merely a mathematical calculation offered as an aid to the jury in the solution of a mathematical problem. I think the clear purpose of the offer was to prove the cost of an annuity that would return some amount monthly to the dependents of the decedent for the term of his life expectancy. If the law made that the basis of a recovery in a death case, the testimony of the actuary would have been evidence as to a fact in issue. Of course that is not the basis upon which damages are fixed. If, therefore, the purpose was merely to prove the cost of an annuity, the evidence was properly excluded. Upon the other hand, if, as plaintiff also claims, the calculations of the actuary were offered in evidence merely to aid the jury in solving a mathematical problem, the testimony was properly excluded. The present value of deferred payments cannot be determined mathematically unless the date and amount of each deferred payment are Imown. Where they are known it is proper for a court or jury to fix the present value of the total of the deferred payments. The court may receive the testimony of experts as an aid in making the computation, just as it may resort to the use of interest tables, but the testimony is not evidence of any fact in issue. When the court uses an interpreter to translate the testimony of a witness, it is the witness, and not the interpreter, who gives the evidence. It has never been considered necessary to prove the multiplication table by experts, although their assistance in the use of it is often of value. But in the present case the calculations should not have been used at all. The impossibility of reducing antic
Let us analyze plaintiff’s contentions a bit further. The jury, it is said, was deprived of evidence which would have enabled it to fix the present value of deferred payments. What is the consequence ? It could only be that after determining the total of the amounts that would have been received by the dependents, the jury failed to reduce the same to its present value or, in other words, that the verdict was larger than it would have been if the jury had applied the mathematics used by insurance companies in fixing the amounts to be charged by them for annuities. The reduction to present value of the total of deferred payments is something which is of interest to the debtor, not the creditor. This is shown by the statement of plaintiff’s attorney that “it would not be fair to defendants to merely multiply the monthly or annual support by the number of months or years the jury believed he would have supported his heirs, because the money could be invested and would earn interest” etc. In my opinion, it would be a serious mistake to even suggest to a jury that they should make an effort to fix the present value of deferred payments in an action for wrongful death, where the anticipated contributions would extend over a long period of time (in the present case into the 68th year of the lifetime of the deceased), and when it would be impossible to know the exact amounts that would have been contributed and the exact period over which they would have extended. The problem involved in arriving at a just amount of the recovery in a case of this sort is one of great difficulty. The approach to it should be made as simple and direct as possible. The trial court was eminently correct in excluding the offered testimony of the actuary. Furthermore, it was stated that no objection would be made if plaintiff’s attorney wished to give to the jury, in argument, his own calculations along the lines of those attempted to be proved by the actuary. This was all plaintiff’s attorney had a right to do. If plaintiff would have derived any advantage from the use of' the tables as evidence, it would have been an undeserved advantage.
The claimed misconduct of defendants’ attorney was not
“MR. SPERRY: Am I not entitled to tell the jury what amount it would take now to yield that amount.
‘‘ THE COURT: As your calculation, you can make it, but I think you are not entitled to undertake to quote any authorities on that subject.”
Plaintiff’s announced theory, presumably, was placed before the jury during the argument. If it was given their consideration, which plaintiff’s counsel told the jury it should have, the natural consequence would have been to reduce the amount of the verdict that otherwise would have been rendered.
The main opinion does not place a reversal upon the ground of inadequacy of the damages—a far more serious
A petition for a rehearing was denied February 28, 1946. Shinn, J., voted for a rehearing.
Respondents’ petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied April 1, 1946.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BETTY CAROL EMERY, as Administratrix Etc., Appellant, v. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY (A Corporation) Et Al., Respondents
- Cited By
- 14 cases
- Status
- Published