Lindsay v. Allstate Ins. Co., 88-2416
| Decision Date | 15 May 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 88-2416,88-2416 |
| Citation | 561 So.2d 427 |
| Parties | 15 Fla. L. Weekly D1361 Guion M. LINDSAY and David Smythe Lindsay, as co-personal representatives of the Estate of Jean M. Lindsay, deceased, Appellant, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody & Cole and Carolyn A. Pickard and Mark A. Lavine, for appellant.
Hoppe, Backmeyer & Nelson and Thomas E. Backmeyer, for appellee.
Before HUBBART, FERGUSON and COPE, JJ.
The main issue, as framed by the appellant, is whether the increased amount paid to the United States government for estate taxes as a result of a decedent's premature death is a recoverable element of damages under the Florida Wrongful Death Act. We affirm the trial court's partial summary judgment for the insurer, agreeing that the loss of prospective federal estate tax credits as a consequence of an insured's premature death is not an element of damages under the Act.
Guion M. Lindsay and David Smythe Lindsay, appellants, are the duly appointed co-personal representatives of the Estate of Jean M. Lindsay. On September 15, 1985, Jean M. Lindsay was killed when struck by an automobile negligently operated by Paul Bough. State Farm Insurance Company tendered, and the Estate accepted, the $10,000 limits of Bough's automobile insurance policy. Lindsay's estate sought excess coverage under the deceased's $100,000 underinsured motorist coverage with the appellee, Allstate Insurance Company.
Mrs. Lindsay was eighty-years-old at the time of her death in 1985. Appellants describe her death as "premature" in that, but for the fatal accident, she presumably would have lived another 10.61 years according to the Life Expectancy Table, 27 Florida Statutes Annotated 91 (West Supp.1988). The unified credit against her estate tax, in the year of her demise, was $121,800. 26 U.S.C. § 2010 (West Supp.1988). If she had lived another two years, her estate would have been entitled to the maximum $192,800 in estate tax credits. The estate representatives contend here that the $71,000 in lost tax credits is an element of damages under the Wrongful Death Act, section 768.21(6)(a), Florida Statutes (1985).
There is no Florida law on the question. Appellants rely mainly on New York authority, Farrar v. Brooklyn Union Gas Co., 131 Misc.2d 936, 502 N.Y.S.2d 610 (Sup.Ct.1986), aff'd, 134 A.D.2d 31, 523 N.Y.S.2d 839 (App.Div.1987), and Pratt v. George Spalty Sons, Inc., 135 Misc.2d 588, 516 N.Y.S.2d 433 (Sup.Ct.1987), in support of their contention that the trial court erroneously entered a summary judgment for Allstate on the tax credit issue. 1 Allstate makes a convincing argument that the New York cases are distinguishable for the reason that they are based on a New York legislative enactment that is different from Florida's Wrongful Death Act. Under New York law, E.P.T.L. section 5-4.3, the amount of recovery for damages, in a wrongful death action, "is measured by the fair and just compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting from decedent's death to the persons [the distributees] for whose benefit the action is brought." Farrar, 502 N.Y.S.2d at 611.
Section 768.21(6)(a) of the Florida Wrongful Death Act, by comparison, appears to measure the loss to the decedent's estate as a consequence of an early death, without consideration for the consequences of federal estate taxes upon what would otherwise have been available for distribution. The interpretation flows from the statutory term "net accumulations" as plainly defined in section 768.18(5):
[T]he part of the decedent's expected net business or salary income, including pension benefits, that the decedent probably would have retained as savings and...
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