Court Addresses Proper Damages Recoverable in a Medical Malpractice Action Involving An Older Retired Adult

In the case of Williams v. Glenmaura Senior Living at Montage, LLC, No. 21-CV-1494 (C.P. Lacka. Co. Nov. 4, 2022 Nealon, J.), Judge Terrence R. Nealon addressed the proper damages recoverable and the supporting evidence required in a medical professional liability action involving the death of a retired older adult.

In particular the court addressed this issue in terms of a Plaintiff’s effort to seek to recover damages under the Wrongful Death Act, 42 Pa. C.S.A. §8301, and the Survival Act, 42 Pa. C.S.A. §8302.

After outlining what types of damages are available to be recovered under each of these elements of avenues of damagers,

After reviewing the record before him, the court found that, since the Plaintiff had not produced an expert report to provide the jury with evidence of the effect of productivity and inflation over time, the applicable discount rate required by the law, and the decedent’s personal maintenance cost, for food, clothing, shelter, medical attention, and some recreation, the Plaintiff could not satisfy her burden of proof under the law in order to advance and sustain a claim in the Survival action for the decedent’s loss of earnings or income.

The court further found that the Plaintiff’s intended use of the decedent’s adjusted gross income as the measure of his estate’s recoverable economic damages would erroneously include forms of income that did not arise from the decedent’s intellectual or body laborer and, as such, are not proper items of damages under the Survival Act.

Accordingly, the court ruled that the Defendant’s Motion In Limine to preclude the Plaintiff from pursuing any type of claim for loss of earnings/income at the trial of the case was granted.

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