Business & Insurance Litigation Newsletter for Indiana

Wrongful Death Damages

According to the Wrongful Death Statute, I.C. 34-23-1-1, a surviving spouse can explicitly recover lost earnings, but a surviving spouse's damages are not limited to just lost earnings. Under Indiana law, a surviving spouse can recover:

(1) Reasonable value of care, love and affection. Dunkelbarger Construction v. Watts, 488 N.E.2d 355 (1986).

(2) Reasonable value of companionship. Elmer Buchta Trucking v. Stanley, 713 N.E.2d 925 (Ind. App. 1999).

(3) Emotional damages. Johnson Controls, Inc. v. Forrester, 704 N.E.2d 1082 (Ind. App. 1999).

(4) Pecuniary losses including "the reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefit from the continued life of the deceased, to be inferred from proof of assistance by way of money, services, or other material benefits rendered by the deceased prior to his death." Lustick v. Hall, 403 N.E.2d 1128 (Ind. App. 1980).

The burden for all of these is on the plaintiff by a preponderance of the evidence. Southlake Limousine v. Brock, 578 N.E. 2d 677 (Ind. App. 1991).

Regarding jury instructions, the court in Southlake Limousine stated that "intangible damages may be considered even though they are not subject to exact measure, but the jury verdict may not be based on guess or speculation." In addition, the court in Burnett stated that the plaintiff bore the burden of providing the jury with the necessary tools to rationally assess the damages and that the plaintiff needs to translate income figures into an approximation of actual monetary loss the widow lost as a result of the decedent's death. Burnett v. State of Indiana, 467 N.E.2d 664 (1984).