Chesapeake Ohio Railway Company v. Addie Kelly

• Decision Date: 05 June 1916
• Docket Number: No. 321,321
• Citation: 241 U.S. 485,60 L.Ed. 1117,36 S.Ct. 630
• Parties: CHESAPEAKE & OHIO RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. ADDIE KELLY, as Administratrix of Matt Kelly, Deceased
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

241 U.S. 485

36 S.Ct. 630

60 L.Ed. 1117

CHESAPEAKE & OHIO RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v ADDIE KELLY, as Administratrix of Matt Kelly, Deceased.

No. 321.

Argued April 19 and 20, 1916.

Decided June 5, 1916.

Messrs. John T. Shelby, John Craig Shelby, and Robert L. Northcutt, H. T. Wickham, Henry Taylor, Jr., Lewis Apperson, E. L. Worthington, W. D. Cochran, Le Wright Browning, David H. Leake, and Walter Leake for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Edward C. O'Rear, B. G. Williams, and F. W. Clements for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Pitney delivered the opinion of the court:

In this action, which was founded upon the employers' liability act of Congress of April 22, 1908 (chap. 149, 35 Stat. at L. 65), as amended by act of April 5, 1910 (chap. 143, 36 Stat. at L. 291, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 8662), defendant in error, as administratrix of Matt Kelly, deceased, recovered a judgment in the Mont- gomery circuit court for damages because of the death of the intestate while employed by plaintiff in error in interstate commerce. The verdict was for $19,011, which was apportioned among the widow and infant children of the deceased, excluding a son who had attained his majority. The court of appeals of Kentucky affirmed the judgment, and denied a rehearing. 160 Ky. 296, 169 S. W. 736, 161 Ky. 655, 171 S. W. 185.

Upon the present writ of error the first contention is that the limitation of the 7th Amendment to the Federal Constitution preserving the common-law right of trial by jury inheres in every right of action created under the authority of that Constitution, and that because, as is said, the courts of Kentucky are unable to secure that right to litigants by reason of a law of the state, passed pursuant to a provision of its Constitution, by the terms of which in all trials of civil actions in the circuit courts three-fourths or more of the jurors concurring may return a verdict, those courts are without jurisdiction of actions arising under the Federal employers' liability act. This contention has been set at rest by our recent decision in Minneapolis & St. L. R. Co. v. Bombolis, 241 U. S. 211, 60 L. ed. ——, 36 Sup. Ct. Rep. 595.

The only other matter requiring consideration is the instruction of the trial court, affirmed by the court of appeals, respecting the method of ascertaining the damages. We may say in passing that while the act of Congress does not require that in such cases damages be apportioned among the beneficiaries (Central Vermont R. Co. v. White, 238 U. S. 507, 515, 59 L. ed. 1433, 1438, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 865, 9 N. C. C. A. 265), it is not in the present case insisted that the act prohibits such an apportionment, and if there be any question about this it is not now before us.

Respecting the matter with which we have to deal, the trial court, after stating that if the jury should find for the plaintiff they should fix the damages at such sum as would reasonably compensate the dependent members of Kelly's family for the pecuniary loss, if any, shown by the evidence to have been sustained by them because of Kelly's injury and death; and that, in fixing the amount, they were authorized to take into consideration the evidence showing the decedent's age, habits, business ability, earning capacity, and probable duration of life, and also the pecuniary loss, if any, which the jury might find from the evidence that the dependent members of his family had sustained because of being deprived of such maintenance or support or other pecuniary advantage, if any, which the jury might believe from the evidence they would have derived from his life thereafter,—proceeded as follows: 'If the jury find for the plaintiff they will find a gross sum for the plaintiff against the defendant which must not exceed the probable earnings of Matt Kelly had he lived. The gross sum to be found for plaintiff, if the jury find for the plaintiff, must be the aggregate of the sums which the jury may find from the evidence and fix as the pecuniary loss above described, which each dependent member of Matt Kelly's family may have sustained by his death;' following this with an instruction respecting the apportionment, with which, as we have said, we are not now concerned. Defendant requested an instruction that the jury should 'fix the damages at that sum which represents the present cash value of the reasonable expectation of pecuniary advantage . . . to said Addie Kelly during her widowhood and while dependent, and pecuniary advantage to said infant children while dependent and until they become twenty-one years of age.' This was refused.

Laying aside questions of form, the court of appeals treated the instruction given and the refusal of the requested instruction as raising the question 'that what the beneficiary is entitled to is not a lump sum equal to what he would receive during the estimated term of de- pendency, but the present cash value of such aggregate amount.' Defendant's contention was overruled upon the ground that the whole loss of the beneficiaries is sustained at the time of the death of the party in question, the court saying: 'While that loss is, in a measure, future support, the father's death precipitated it, so that it is all due, and we are not impressed with the argument that the sum due should be reduced by rebate or discount. The value of a father's support is not so difficult to estimate, and the average juryman is competent to compute it, but to figure interest on deferred payments, with annual rests, and reach a present cash value of such loss to each dependent is more than ought to be asked of anyone less qualified than an actuary.'

We are constrained to say that, in our opinion, the court of appeals erred in its conclusion upon this point. The damages should be equivalent to compensation for the deprivation of the reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefits that would have resulted from the continued life of the deceased. Michigan C. R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 59, 70, 71, 57 L. ed. 417, 421, 422, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 192, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 176; American R. Co. v. Didricksen, 227 U. S. 145, 149, 57 L. ed. 456, 457, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 224; Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. McGinnis, 228 U. S. 173, 175, 57 L. ed. 785, 786, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 426, 3 N. C. C. A. 806. So far as a verdict is based upon the deprivation of future benefits, it will afford more than compensation if it be made up by aggregating the benefits without taking account of the earning power of the money that is presently to be awarded. It is selfevident that a given sum of money in hand is worth more than the like sum of money payable in the future. Ordinarily a person seeking to recover damages for the wrongful act of another must do that which a reasonable man would do under the circumstances to limit the amount of the damages. Wicker v. Hoppock, 6 Wall. 94, 99, 18 L. ed. 752, 753; The Baltimore, 8 Wall. 377, 387, 19 L. ed. 463, 465; United States v. Smith, 94 U. S. 214, 218, 24 L. ed. 115; Warren v. Stoddart, 105 U. S. 224, 229, 26 L. ed. 1117, 1120; United States v. United States Fidelity & G. Co. 236 U. S. 512, 526, 59 L. ed. 696, 703, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 298. And the putting out of money at interest is at this day so common a matter that ordinarily it cannot be excluded from consideration in determining the present equivalent of future payments, since a reasonable man, even from selfish motives, would probably gain some money by way of interest upon the money recovered. Savings banks and other established financial institutions are in many cases accessible for the deposit of moderate sums at interest, without substantial danger of loss; the sale of annuities is not unknown; and, for larger sums, state and municipal bonds and other securities of almost equal standing are commonly available.

Local conditions are not to be disregarded, and besides, there may be cases where the anticipated pecuniary advantage of which the beneficiary has been deprived covers an expectancy so short and is in the aggregate so small that a reasonable man could not be expected to make an investment or purchase an annuity with the proceeds of the judgment. But, as a rule, and in all cases where it is reasonable to suppose that interest may safely be earned upon the amount that is awarded,...