 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Perrotti v. Gonicberg7/7/2005
aintiffs rely on Gagnon for the proposition that a pregnant woman should be permitted to collect damages for her apprehension and anxiety after a personal injury. In Gagnon, a pregnant woman, walking on the sidewalk near the corner of John and Pleasant Streets in Woonsocket, was struck and severely injured by a street car which, when turning the corner overlapped the sidewalk for up to fifteen inches. Gagnon, 40 R.I. at 474, 101 A. at 105. When the plaintiff in Gagnon was struck she felt pain in her back and side and said that she "felt the child pushing toward the right." Id. at 475, 101 A. at 105. She further testified at trial that from the time of the accident until the birth she was worried that the child would be born deformed-a worry that later proved to be founded. Id. This Court held that the "foetus is a part of the person of a pregnant woman, and if, by reason of the nature and circumstances of an injury to her person caused by the negligence of a defendant, she suffers apprehension and anxiety as to the effect of the injury upon the foetus, * * * such mental suffering becomes an element of her damages as a natural and proximate result of the negligence which caused the injury."
Id. at 476, 101 A. at 105.
Furthermore, the Court held that "the mother is entitled to damages for her distress and disappointment at the time of the birth because through the defendant's negligence she has been deprived of the right and the satisfaction of bearing a sound child, if it be found that the child's deformity is due to the injury she received through the defendant's negligence." Id.
The plaintiffs propose that Gagnon stands for a general rule that a pregnant woman can collect damages for her apprehension that she would give birth to a deformed child. They also cite various cases from other jurisdictions to support their argument that Mrs. Perrotti should be able to recover damages for her alleged mental suffering. See, e.g., Prescott v. Robinson, 69 A. 522 (N.H. 1908) (holding that the mother was permitted to recover damages for mental anguish because of the reasonable probability that the defendant's negligent act of severely injuring her would cause her to "produce an abnormal child"); Fehely v. Senders, 135 P.2d 283 (Or. 1943) (holding that a woman, who was six months pregnant at the time of the accident, was permitted to recover damages for her apprehension that her child may be born dead or deformed as a result of striking her abdomen against the steering wheel in the accident); Rosen v. Yellow Cab Co., 56 A.2d 398 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1948) (permitting a woman in her seventh or eighth month of pregnancy who, after suffering back and shoulder injuries in a car accident, experienced abdominal pains, bleeding, and the onset of labor pains, to collect damages for her apprehension that the accident may have caused a premature birth and injury to the baby).
It appears to us that there are important distinctions between the cases plaintiffs cite and the case now before us. First, most of the cases plaintiffs cite predate the era of reliable antenatal diagnostics. Secondly, in all the cases plaintiffs cite, as well as others establishing and supporting the same avenue of recovery, the pregnant woman either suffered a direct injury to her abdomen, or suffered symptoms related to her pregnancy, such as contractions, bleeding or premature labor, that provided a direct physical indication that the fetus or the pregnancy might be compromised in some way.
In the current case, however, Mrs. Perrotti did not suffer any injury to her abdomen, nor did she suffer any physical problems or pain with regard to her pregnancy as a result of the collision. In addition, while in the e
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rhode Island Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|