Haines v. Raven Arms

• Decision Date: 29 March 1994
• Citation: 640 A.2d 367,536 Pa. 452
• Parties: Melvie HAINES and Walter Haines Individually and Melvie Haines as Parent and Natural Guardian of Tamika Haines, a Minor, Appellants, v. RAVEN ARMS, Donn's, Inc., Brenda Teagle and Diane Teagle, Walter Butler, and Eastern Shooters, Appellees.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 367

640 A.2d 367

536 Pa. 452

Melvie HAINES and Walter Haines Individually and Melvie Haines as Parent and Natural Guardian of Tamika Haines, a Minor, Appellants, v. RAVEN ARMS, Donn's, Inc., Brenda Teagle and Diane Teagle Walter Butler, and Eastern Shooters, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Jan. 24, 1994.

Decided March 29, 1994.

Reargument Denied; Reconsideration Granted and

Record Remanded June 7, 1994. ^*

Robert C. Daniels, Stephen T. Saltz, Larry Bendesky, Philadelphia, for Haines.

Frederic L. Goldfein, Leslie Ann Miller, Roseann Lynn Brenner, Philadelphia, for Donn's, Inc.

Brewington W. Croswell, Philadelphia, for Teagles.

Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS, CAPPY, CASTILLE and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FLAHERTY, Justice.

This is an appeal by plaintiffs below from the grant of a remittitur which reduced damages for pain and suffering from $8,000,000 to $5,000,000, following a jury verdict in the former amount, in a case involving serious and permanent debilitating injuries caused by an accidental shooting 427 Pa.Super. 650, 625 A.2d 96.

The facts in the record and inferences from the facts, taken in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, may be summarized as follows. In 1981, Mrs. Brenda Teagle purchased a handgun for self-protection. She bought a Raven Arms P-25 semi-automatic handgun from Donn's, Inc., and although she knew nothing about firearms, received no instructions, written or oral, on how to load, operate, or store the gun. Mrs. Teagle testified that she would have followed both the manufacturer's instructions and proper oral instructions had they been provided, including loading the gun without a bullet in the chamber. But because no instructions were provided, Mrs. Teagle had a neighbor load the gun, telling him she wanted it to be able to fire immediately; he loaded it with a bullet in the chamber. Two years later, while entertaining two visitors, Mrs. Teagle's daughter Diane showed the gun to Walter Butler, who took the magazine out of the gun and, thinking it was unloaded, pulled the trigger. Diane's other visitor, Tamika Haines, sitting on the other side of the room, was struck in the head by the bullet which was discharged from the gun.

At the time, Tamika Haines was a 14-year-old ninth grader. The bullet entered below her left eye and travelled to the back of her head but remained lodged in her brain. Immediate surgery removed a portion of the skull as well as blood clots and destroyed brain tissue but no attempt was made to remove the bullet at that time as it would have caused additional damage to the brain. During the next five years, Tamika underwent six additional operations including removal of the bullet in 1988, long periods of hospitalization, rehabilitation therapy, outpatient treatment, and special schooling for handicapped children.

Prior to trial, Tamika was diagnosed as suffering the following permanent injuries. She has weakness in one side of her body, impairment of vision on her right side, and loss of cognitive skills which impairs her ability to communicate ideas, her ability to do mathematics, her memory, and her orientation to environment. Her right foot turns inward to some extent, affecting her ability to walk normally. Experts opined that she will require 24-hour supervision for the rest of her life due to impaired physical condition, analytical and differential thinking, memory, and judgment. An expert testified that her life expectancy was 55 years from the time of trial.

In a bifurcated trial, the jury found the defendants liable for negligence as follows: Donn's, Inc., the seller, 30%; Brenda Teagle, the gun owner, 40%; her daughter Diane, 5%; Walter Butler, the shooter, 25%. Special interrogatories produced the following damages award: medical expenses, $125,802.60; loss of earnings, $725,000; care and supervision, $2,500,000; pain and suffering, $8,000,000; a total of $11,350,802.60.

On motion of Donn's, Inc., a three-judge court en banc remitted the award for pain and suffering from eight to five million dollars. The Superior Court affirmed the remittitur, and this court granted allocatur to consider only this issue. ¹

Judicial reduction of a jury award is appropriate only when the award is plainly excessive and exorbitant. The question is whether the award of damages falls within the uncertain limits of fair and reasonable compensation or whether the verdict so shocks the sense of justice as to suggest that the jury was influenced by partiality, prejudice, mistake, or corruption. Carminati v. Philadelphia Transportation Co., 405 Pa. 500, 509, 176 A.2d 440, 445 (1962). We have discussed application of this standard at greater length in a more recent case:

In this area of law we begin with the well-recognized principle that the grant or refusal of a new trial [or remittitur] because of the excessiveness of the verdict is peculiarly within the discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed unless an abuse of discretion or an error of law has been committed. Recognizing the difficult task encountered by an appellate court in reviewing the record when a trial court merely assigns conclusory statements--"interests of justice," "shocks the court's conscience" and "substantial justice"--we have attempted to discourage this practice. In Hilliard [v. Anderson, 440 Pa. 625, 271 A.2d 227 (1970) ], the defendant was granted a new trial upon the plaintiff's failure to file a remittitur solely because "the verdict shocked the conscience of the court." Primarily concerned with the "shock the conscience" test, we noted, "[t]he court should state the reasons for this conclusion in order that we may have the opportunity of intelligently determining if an abuse of discretion occurred." 440 Pa. at 628, 271 A.2d at 229. We now add the "excessive verdict" conclusion to that list of judicial statements requiring additional, supporting reasons.

Scaife Co. v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., 446 Pa. 280, 290, 285 A.2d 451, 456-57 (1971) (citations omitted).

Application of the Carminati standard does not require parroting its language as a talisman, particularly in light of the caution stated in Scaife Co. The en banc trial court in this case understandably avoided an assertion that the verdict shocked its sense of justice. ² Its rationale for granting the remittitur stated, in part:

As noted, Tamika Haines suffered catastrophic injuries. In essence she has been deprived of the ability to have normal relationships with other human beings. She suffered major memory loss, loss of cognitive abilities, and has trouble walking and using her arms. She had seven major surgeries. She cannot be left alone for long, for fear that she will wander off and be taken advantage of by anyone who comes along. At the same time, she remembers that she was once normal and has difficulty relating to those who she considers "retarded." Clearly, this warrants a significant award.

On the other hand, she is not in any physical pain, does relate to her family, goes by herself to remedial classes, and can carry out some activities. She is not in the same class as someone who is a quadriplegic or in great constant pain that cannot be treated.

... Three very experienced civil trial judges including the trial judge (who saw all the witnesses and heard all the facts in detail) heard the motions. While the consensus was that $8,000,000 was excessive considering this case in light of other kinds of catastrophic injuries, the consensus also was that $5,000,000 was not excessive. However, it is asking a great deal of a lay jury to fix a figure in a case like this with no experience and precious little guidance. At least the three judges have a long background from which to draw when determining what is excessive and what is not excessive. We believed that the jury figure of $8,000,000 was excessive and should be modified....

The court also referred to six factors suggested by the Superior Court: 1) the severity of the injury; 2) whether the injury is demonstrated by objective physical evidence; 3) whether the injury is permanent; 4) the plaintiff's ability to continue employment; 5) disparity between the amount of out of pocket expenses and the amount of the verdict; and 6) the amount demanded in the original complaint. See, e.g., Stoughton v. Kinzey, 299 Pa.Super. 499, 503, 445 A.2d 1240, 1242 (1982). The court found these factors only marginally useful in this case, as not all of them were relevant. The court rather found difficulty in comparing the facts of different cases because each case is unique and dependent on its own special circumstances, citing Kemp v. Philadelphia Transportation Co., 239 Pa.Super. 379, 382, 361 A.2d 362, 364 (1976). The court en banc then noted "the responsibility of the judiciary to keep pain and suffering awards within reasonable bounds in a case such as this where the jury cannot help but have sympathy for the plight of the plaintiff," citing Daley v. John Wanamaker, Inc., 317 Pa.Super. 348, 352, 464 A.2d 355, 357-58 (1983), and concluded "that $8,000,000 was excessive, and that $5,000,000 was not an excessive award for her pain and suffering."

In reviewing the grant of a remittitur, we accord particular deference to the wide discretion of trial judges, and will not reverse unless a clear abuse of discretion or error of law has occurred. Scaife Co. v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., supra; Connolly v. Philadelphia Transportation Co., 420 Pa. 280, 287, 216 A.2d 60, 64 (1966). The en banc court in this case stated, as clearly as possible in the highly subjective task of translating pain and suffering into monetary figures, its reasons for determining that the jury award was excessive and should be remitted. The court's explanation was far more specific than the conclusory statements condemned in Scaife Co., supra. Although the trial court did not echo the precise language used by this court in Carminati, its...