 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Giampara v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company2/24/2003
>
Turning now to the scope of non-economic damages available for a willful-and-wanton breach, we clarify our decision in Thomas Decker II and hold that non-economic damages are not limited to "mental anguish" damages only. Instead, a full range of non-economic damages is available in cases involving a willful-and-wanton breach of contract.
Colorado case law supports our conclusion that the willful-and-wanton rule has always allowed the recovery of various non-economic damages in addition to "mental anguish." First, it is clear that the Colorado courts have historically used the phrase "mental distress" as an abbreviation encompassing other types of non-economic damages. As early as Hall, the court of appeals used the terms "mental suffering" or "mental anguish" to collectively refer to "mental anguish, humiliation, and distress of mind." Hall, 24 Colo. App. at 227-28, 134 P. at 151-52. Similarly, in McCreery, the phrases "mental pain" and "mental suffering" served as proxies for other types of non-economic damages such as "humiliation, embarrassment, distress, and damages." 99 Colo. at 500, 64 P.2d at 804.
In more recent Colorado cases, the courts have used the terms "emotional distress" and "mental anguish" interchangeably, and this court has held that the "loss of ability to enjoy life" is equivalent to "mental suffering." See Westfield Dev. Co. v. Rifle Inv. Assoc., 786 P.2d 1112, 1121 (Colo. 1990); Trimble, 697 P.2d at 730; Denver Publ'g Co. v. Kirk, 729 P.2d 1004, 1008 (Colo. App. 1986).
In Thomas Decker II, we specifically upheld an award for inconvenience and emotional stress under the general notion that "the award of ... non-economic damages for [the defendant's] willful-and-wanton breach of its [contract] is proper under Colorado law." 931 P.2d at 448. We now clarify our interpretation of the willful-and-wanton rule to explicitly allow a complete recovery for non-economic damages caused by a willful-and-wanton breach.
In affirming a broad interpretation of the willful-and-wanton rule, we note that neither American Family nor any of the amici has offered a logical reason for limiting recovery to only some categories of non-economic damage. Their arguments depend entirely on cases that use, without explanation, the statement in Hall that damages are recoverable in cases seeking "mental distress alone" or "mental distress only." See, e.g., Mortgage Fin., Inc. v. Podleski, 742 P.2d 900, 904 (Colo. 1987); Kirk, 729 P.2d at 1008; Adams v. Frontier Airlines Fed. Credit Union, 691 P.2d 352, 355 (Colo App. 1984). A lack of contextual clarification over the years has allowed courts to wrongly interpret the language "mental distress alone" to mean that other types of non-economic damages are not available. Thomas Decker I, 903 P.2d at 1158; Giampapa I, 919 P.2d at 841. This interpretation is incorrect. As explained earlier, "mental distress alone" simply refers to cases involving mental distress damages unaccompanied by physical or pecuniary loss. Hall, 24 Colo. App. at 228, 134 P. at 152. The phrase does not refer to a preclusion of non-economic damages outside of mental distress.
Even if American Family had provided a sound reason for precluding other types of non-economic damages, we find it highly impractical to categorize different non-economic damages into arbitrary compartments where some damages are compensable and others are not. For purposes of determining a non-economic damage award, we simply find no principled method of separating "mental suffering" and "emotional distress" damages from those damages incurred by "physical pain" or "physical stress," because "mental anguish" is commonly evidenced by physical manifestations of that same anguish
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Colorado Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|