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Craig v. Oakwood Hospital2/1/2002
FOR PUBLICATION
We agree with Judge Cooper's opinion in all respects except for portions of Section VII. Specifically, we disagree with the rejection of defendant Oakwood Hospital's challenge to the trial court's denial of its motion for remittitur based on the jury's damages award for plaintiff's lost earning capacity. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
Generally, a trial court may grant a defendant's motion for remittitur if the jury verdict is "excessive," that is, greater than the highest amount that the evidence will support. MCR 2.611(E)(1). A trial court's decision to deny a motion for a new trial is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Palenkas v Beaumont Hosp, 432 Mich 527, 533; 443 NW2d 354 (1999).
Here, the jury awarded plaintiff, who was born in 1980, $52,000 for lost earning capacity for 1998. In addition, to calculate plaintiff's lost earning capacity for each subsequent year through 2041, the jury added three percent to the previous year's figure to account for inflation. Ultimately, as with any future damages award, the trial court reduced plaintiff's lost earning capacity damages award to its present value: $1,992,138.41.
Defendant Oakwood Hospital moved for remittitur, arguing that the lost earning capacity award should have been reduced to a present value of $967,045 because that was the highest amount supported by the evidence. The $967,045 figure was based on the following testimony of plaintiff's expert witness, Dr. Robert Ancell:
I looked at certain data that's available to us, government data. It's national data and it's related to race, sex, and also education and from that data I indicated and felt that his previous earning capacity was in the area of nineteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight dollars a year [$19,938] to approximately twenty-two thousand seven hundred fifty-four dollars per year [$22,754].
Dr. Ancell opined that "one could reasonably expect him to have an earning capacity of a high school graduate or maybe a little bit more than a high school graduate, based on the educational achievements of his biological parents."
Dr. Ancell also testified that the 1997 starting salary at the automobile manufacturing companies in Michigan was about twenty dollars per hour, or approximately $40,000 per year, plus benefits. Dr. Ancell noted that a high school education has become a minimum requirement for obtaining this employment. On the other hand, Dr. Ancell testified that "not everybody that wants" these manufacturing jobs get them because of the competition.
Dr. Ancell's testimony was supplemented by the expert testimony of a certified public accountant, Marvin Weinstein, that national data indicated that the value of a benefits package was approximately 31.4% of the compensation . Thus, Weinstein opined that the benefits package on the $40,000 per year manufacturing job suggested by Dr. Ancell, would be worth approximately $12,560 per year. As noted above, the jury award plaintiff $52,000 for lost earning capacity for 1998.
In denying defendant Oakwood Hospital's motion for remittitur, the trial court opined as follows:
There is no evidence this jury was fueled by bias, prejudice or passion. These jurors were all working people and at least one of them was a nurse. They were experienced people who would have a normal understanding of life's problems and blessings.
They sat patiently through a five-week trial which they had been told would only last for two weeks.
The Plaintiff's case took only four or five trial days and the defense spent more than three times that many days putting on their case . . . .
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