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Choctaw Maid Farms5/30/2002
s would be without adequate bases for meaningful review. Would defendants, under the rule proposed by the majority, be entitled to put on evidence that the decedent's life was worth very little - - because he was a habitual criminal or a drug user, a member of some disfavored social, political or religious group, or physically or mentally handicapped, or just unhappy? Or, would such evidence be excluded as prejudicial, leaving defendants no meaningful way to rebut?
. In contrast, evidence of hedonic damages in personal injury cases does not present the same concerns because the injured party can usually testify as to the enjoyments of life he or she has lost as a result of the injury. The majority's ruling will require juries to make arbitrary judgments about the worth of people who can neither testify as to the quality of their lives nor be cross-examined by defendants, with no evidentiary basis for these judgments except emotional appeals designed solely to inflame the jury's passions.
. I had hoped that this Court would learn from fifty years of experience of our brethren in England, and not wander down this less traveled road, as they did, before realizing that awarding hedonic damages in wrongful death actions only risks speculative, arbitrary awards and windfalls to plaintiffs. This is a pandora's box we should not open.
. For all the reasons stated herein, I respectfully dissent.
SMITH, P.J., AND WALLER, J., JOIN THIS OPINION.
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