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Payne v. Eighth Judicial District Court12/17/2002
Petitioner Darlene Payne seeks a writ of supervisory control over the Respondents, the District Court for the Eighth Judicial District in Cascade County, the Honorable Kenneth Neill, Jim Knutson, and Dutch Knutson.
In October of 1998, Payne's son, Raymond Naumer, was killed in a rollover accident while driving a tractor near Belt, Montana. On January 19, 2001, Payne, individually and as personal representative of the estate of Raymond Naumer, filed wrongful death and survivorship actions against the Defendants, Lilah Knutson, Jim Knutson, and Dutch Knutson.
The Defendants intended to call Daniel Vuckovich as an expert witness at trial to contradict Payne's evidence on future earnings. Vuckovich figured to testify that Naumer's prospective earnings should be reduced on account of economic consumption-the amount of projected earnings that Naumer would spend on basic necessities and personal expenditures throughout his lifetime. In April of 2002, Payne filed a motion in limine which sought to exclude the economic consumption testimony as it pertained to the survivorship action. Following oral argument on the matter, the District Court denied Payne's motion to exclude the testimony. In so doing, Judge Neill stated:
To me it's illogical to allow somebody to recover the same thing that they would have recovered had they survived, in which case there would have been consumption. And I think that you can cross-examine Mr. Vuckovich about the discrepancies in how different people might consume their earnings.
On October 16, 2002, Payne filed an application for a writ of supervisory control with this Court pursuant to Rule 17, M.R.App.P. Payne contends that the District Court erred as a matter of law when it denied her motion. Payne insists that this error will force the parties into a needless cycle of trial, appeal, and retrial.
Supervisory control should issue when a district court proceeds under a mistake of law causing a gross injustice for which an appeal is not an adequate remedy. Safeco v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist., 2000 MT 153, 14, 300 Mont. 123, 14, 2 P.3d 834, 14. Supervisory control is an extraordinary remedy exercised only in extraordinary circumstances. Safeco, 14. As indicated above, the District Court was going to permit the jury to consider evidence of economic consumption as it pertained to the survival action. For the reasons discussed below, to proceed in such a fashion would constitute a deviation from well established jurisprudence in the litigation of survival and wrongful death actions. Inevitably, this mistake of law would alter the cost of and preparation for trial, affect settlement negotiations, and call into question the value of any potential verdict resulting in additional time and expense for appellate resolution and subsequent litigation. See Plumb v. Fourth Jud. Dist. Court (1996), 279 Mont. 363, 370, 927 P.2d 1011, 1016. Therefore, any remedy available to Payne on direct appeal would prove inadequate resulting in a gross injustice. As such, we conclude that this is an appropriate case in which to exercise supervisory control.
DISCUSSION
Did the District Court err when it denied Payne's motion to exclude the economic consumption evidence from the jury's consideration in computing survival damages?
As indicated above, this case implicates two distinct causes of action, survivorship and wrongful death. Survival actions derive from ยงยง 27-1-501, MCA, which provides in part:
(1) An action, cause of action, or defense does not abate because of the death or disability of a party or the transfer of any interest therein, but whenever the cause of
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