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Bahl v. Talford5/16/2000
Appeal by unnamed defendant from orders and judgments filed 12 August 1998 by Judge Sanford L. Steelman, Jr., in Union County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 6 October 1999.
Unnamed defendant North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (Farm Bureau) appeals the trial court's judgment in favor of plaintiffs Arun and Rayetta Bahl, administrators of the estates of Rene Lorraine Bahl (Rene) and Riana Elizabeth Bahl (Riana) (jointly, the deceased). We vacate the judgment in part and remand.
Pertinent facts and procedural history include the following: On 10 January 1995, Rene, age eleven, and Riana, age sixteen, daughters of plaintiffs, were passengers in an automobile operated by Michael Vega (Vega) in Union County. A vehicle driven by defendant Scott Lee Talford (Talford) and owned by defendant Robert Jordan (Jordan) struck the Vega automobile in the rear, whereupon it collided with a third vehicle, resulting in the deaths of Rene and Riana.
Plaintiffs filed separate actions on behalf of the estates of the deceased against Talford and Jordan 16 April 1996, alleging Talford's negligence had been a proximate cause of the deaths of Rene and Riana. Talford and Jordan answered, and Farm Bureau also filed answer in each case, as well as a third party complaint against Vega, alleging his negligence had caused the collision. Plaintiffs' subsequently amended complaints included wrongful death claims against Vega, and the amended answers of Talford and Jordan asserted cross-claims against Vega for contribution.
On 9 May 1998, plaintiffs settled with Vega for a total sum of $20,000.00 and thereafter dismissed with prejudice all pending claims against him. The trial court thereupon granted Vega's motion to dismiss with prejudice the remaining claims against him by Talford, Jordan and Farm Bureau.
Plaintiffs' actions were consolidated for jury trial and heard 21 July 1998. Prior to trial, Talford placed into the record his admission
that on the date of the alleged accident he was negligent and that negligence was a proximate cause of the collision and the death of the two minor deceased plaintiffs.
As a consequence, the sole issue for jury resolution was that of damages. Both plaintiffs testified at trial and also called as witnesses two state highway patrol officers and Dr. Charles Alford (Alford).
The trial court accepted Alford as "an expert witness in the field of forensic economics and projection of future income streams of children." Alford expressed his opinion that the earnings of Rene and Riana "through [their] parents life expectancy after subtracting personal subsistence expenditures would be in present value after taxes" the sums of $228,077.00 and $293,912.00, respectively. Alford acknowledged the amounts constituted estimates and represented the "discretionary income that would have been available to the girls," or money that "they could have used had they elected for the support of their parents."
At the close of plaintiffs' evidence, defendants moved for directed verdict, see N.C.G.S. ยง 1A-1, Rule 50(a) (1999), asserting plaintiffs had presented insufficient evidence to submit as an element of damages the amount of income plaintiffs might have received from the deceased. The motion was denied and defendants rested without presenting evidence. The jury returned verdicts awarding plaintiffs total damages of $400,000.00.
In addition, the jury responded to the following special interrogatory:
hat portion of your award is for the present value of the amount of money which the deceased . . . could have expected to earn during the remainder of the l
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