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High court returns 'loss-of-life' damages case to circuit court Friday, Jan 25, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Supreme Court on Thursday returned a "loss-of-life" damages to circuit court for trial Thursday, ruling a judge erred in ruling there was not enough evidence to award such damages to the estate of a woman who died with her two children in a car wreck. The high court ruled there was "substantial evidence from which a jury could have determined that the estate was entitled to loss-of-life damages." The court sent the case back to Cleburne County Circuit Court for trial. The Legislature authorized loss-of-life damages under Act 1516 of 2001. "Before 2001 juries were limited in the kind of damages they could award," Jerry Schulze, attorney for the estate of Lorrie Ann Kaz, said Thursday. Juries could award damages, such as for mental anguish and pain and suffering, to the survivors of a person who died in an accident but were limited, generally, to funeral expenses, on what they could award to the estate of the dead person, Schulze said. Act 1516, sponsored by then-Rep. Chaney Taylor of Batesville, said, "in addition to all other elements of damages provided by law, the decedent's estate may recover for the decedent's loss of life as an independent element of damages." Kaz, of Lewisville, along with her two young daughters, 7-year-old Dusti Sherman and 11-year-old Julianne Dorman, were killed in August 2001 near Rose Bud when the car they were in was struck by a car driven by Richard Pope, then minister of Wesley United Methodist Church in Pine Bluff. The estates of the Kaz and her two children filed a lawsuit against Pope, his church and the church's insurance company, American Manufacturers Mutual. After a trial, the estates of each of the girls was awarded $1.17 million in damages, including $1 million each for "loss-of-life" damages and funeral expenses. Kaz' estate received $1,400 for funeral expenses, and two other surviving children received $40,000 and $100,000 for mental anguish. "Here, the testimony clearly demonstrated Ms. Kaz was a mother of four, as well as a grandmother, that she was close to her oldest daughter, that she had worked as a waitress, that she lived with a man for whom she had come to Arkansas, and that, at the time of the accident, she was on her way to a family get-together," the Supreme Court said in its ruling Thursday. "While not direct evidence with respect to the value Ms. Kaz would have placed on her life, we hold that this circumstantial evidence was substantial evidence from which the jury could have inferred the value she would have placed on her life and on which the jury could have awarded the estate loss-of-life damages," Justice Paul Danielson wrote in the unanimous opinion. |
