Snow v. Villacci

• Decision Date: 30 June 2000
• Citation: 754 A.2d 360,2000 ME 127
• Court: Maine Supreme Court
• Parties: Richard SNOW v. Robert VILLACCI et al.

754 A.2d 360

2000 ME 127

Richard SNOW v. Robert VILLACCI et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued April 4, 2000.

Decided June 30, 2000.

Steven D. Silin (orally), Berman & Simmons, P.A., Lewiston, for plaintiff.

Christopher C. Dinan (orally), Ivy L. Frignoca, Monaghan, Leahy, Hochadel & Libby, LLP, Portland, for defendants.

Panel: WATHEN, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA,¹ SAUFLEY, ALEXANDER, and CALKINS, JJ.

SAUFLEY, J.

[¶ 1] Robert Villacci and Gene Villacci d/b/a Villacci Motor Sales,² appeal from a judgment in favor of Richard Snow entered in the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Cole, J.), following the court's denial of Villacci's motion for partial summary judgment. Villacci's appeal requires us to determine whether a plaintiff in a tort action may recover damages that are in the nature of a "lost earning opportunity." Because we conclude that damages of this nature may be recovered when proven to have been proximately caused by the negligence of the defendant, we affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] In 1996, Snow took his vehicle to the Villacci facility for repairs. When Robert Villacci mistakenly started Snow's vehicle while it was in gear, he pinned Snow between the car and a workbench. Snow sustained significant injuries to his legs and lost approximately fourteen weeks of work at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, an investment firm.³ He then brought suit against Villacci, alleging that Robert Villacci's negligence was the proximate cause of his injuries and damages. Among the damages sought by Snow were those that he referred to as "a lost earning opportunity" resulting from the setback in his career training efforts.

[¶ 3] Snow's lost opportunity claim arose out of his anticipated progress in a professional training program. At the time of the injury, Snow was working toward a designation as a financial consultant—essentially a stockbroker position. He was in month twenty of Merrill Lynch's twenty-five-month program. Progress toward the program's goals was measured on a quarterly basis. With five months left in the program at the time of his injuries, Snow had not achieved the goals, and his successful completion of the program was possible but not assured. According to Snow, even though he was allowed an extension to complete the program after he was injured, his brief absence from the program set him back and prevented him from successfully meeting the programs goals. At the completion of the program, he had not met the program's goals and was not invited to become a financial consultant.⁴

[¶ 4] Although Snow did not complete the program, Merrill Lynch did retain him as an investment associate, a position which allowed Snow to earn substantial income, but not the level of income he had anticipated. Snow asserted that he would not be permitted to undertake the Merrill Lynch Financial Consultant Program again and that a noncompetition agreement he had signed would prevent him from becoming a stockbroker with another company.⁵ He claimed, therefore, that although he is able to earn income as an investment associate, he lost an opportunity for substantially higher income as a financial consultant.

[¶ 5] As a consequence, although Snow currently suffers no continuing physical or mental impairment or other disability caused by Villacci's negligence, he asserts that the weeks of lost work in 1996 have resulted in a current and prospective loss of an opportunity to increase his earnings.

[¶ 6] Villacci moved for partial summary judgment regarding Snow's claim for lost earning opportunity, asserting that Snow sought recovery for a type of damage that has not been and should not be recognized in Maine. The court determined that there were material facts in dispute, impliedly determining that a claim for "lost earning opportunity" was not precluded as a matter of law, and denied the motion for partial summary judgment. Thereafter, the parties entered a stipulation resolving all outstanding claims in order to allow an appeal of the issue of law raised by the defendants. The stipulation resulted in entry of a judgment in favor of Snow along with a court approved agreement that all undisputed damages would be paid immediately by the defendants and that an additional amount would be paid upon resolution of this appeal in Snow's favor. The additional amount related solely to Snow's claimed lost earning opportunity.⁶

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

[¶ 7] The unique procedural posture of this matter requires careful attention to the appropriate standard of review. The only question before us is whether the court erred when it denied summary judgment with respect to this claim for damages. "The function of a summary judgment is to permit a court, prior to trial, to determine whether there exists a triable issue of fact or whether the question before the court is solely one of law." Bouchard v. American Orthodontics, 661 A.2d 1143, 1144 (Me.1995), quoted in Steeves v. Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.C., 1998 ME 210, ¶ 11, 718 A.2d 186, 190

.

[¶ 8] Thus, unless we conclude as a matter of law that no plaintiff, under any facts, may recover, damages for the loss of an earning opportunity, we need only determine that Snow presented material facts upon which a factfinder could have determined that he lost an earning opportunity, however minimal, in order to affirm the denial of the motion.⁷

B. Damages

[¶ 9] Generally, a plaintiff in tort is entitled to all damages proximately caused by a wrongdoer's actions. The purpose of awarding damages in a tort action is to "make the plaintiff whole by compensating him or her for any injuries or losses proximately caused by the defendant's negligence." See Zillman, Simmons & Gregory, Maine Tort Law § 19.01 at 663 (1999). In proving damages, the plaintiff must "establish[] facts from which the loss may be determined to a probability." Currier v. Cyr, 570 A.2d 1205, 1210 (Me. 1990).

[¶ 10] Damages relating to lost earnings have traditionally fallen into two categories, lost wages or earnings and lost earning capacity.⁸ The matter before us does not involve either type of loss. Although Snow has in some instances referred to his claim in terms of a "lost earning capacity," damages of that type are distinct from the damages he seeks. See, e.g., Goldstein v. Sklar, 216 A.2d 298, 309 (Me.1966)

(discussing evidence necessary to make out lost earning capacity claim). A lost earning capacity claim requires evidence that the injury caused by the wrongdoer has caused an ongoing impairment that has diminished or eliminated the plaintiff's ability to earn income. See Kaler v. Webster, 348 A.2d 702, 703-04 (Me.1975) ("[For example], where a professional person sustains a relatively minor, albeit permanent injury of some sort, impairment of earning capacity is less obvious and the jury needs evidence connecting the injury to the alleged impairment before it can make a rational assessment of damages.").

[¶ 11] Unlike a loss of earning capacity, an earning opportunity may be lost when, during the period of disability caused by the defendant's negligence, a specific earning opportunity arises which could otherwise have been be utilized by the plaintiff, but is lost because of a disability caused by the negligence of the defendant.

[¶ 12] One type of lost earning opportunity may occur when a person who is in an education or training program is injured and is unable to complete the program on schedule. If the injury resolves and the trainee is capable of returning to the program, the trainee may nonetheless recover damages representing the lost opportunity to obtain the improved income during the period of time in which the trainee would have begun to earn at the new level but remains in the training program. Again, the impediments to recovery are evidentiary rather than legal in nature.⁹ See M.L. Schellenger, Annotation, Proof of Prospective Earning Capacity of Student or Trainee, or of Its Loss, in Action for Personal Injury or Death, 15 A.L.R.2d 418, 419-24 (1951); J.J. Director, Annotation, Admissibility, In Personal Injury or Death Action, of Evidence as to Injured Party's Intention to Enter Occupation Other Than That Engaged in at Time of Injury or Death, 23 A.L.R.3d 1189, 1193-96 (1969).¹⁰

[¶ 13] Here, Snow does not claim that his physical or intellectual capacity to earn an income has been impaired; rather, he claims that he lost a unique opportunity to obtain certain future earnings due to Villacci's negligence.¹¹ Villacci's opposition to Snow's claim, distilled to its essence, is that damages for lost earning opportunity are necessarily based on nothing more than speculation and thus may not, as a matter of law, be recovered. Although we reject such an absolute rule, we recognize the need for careful attention to the quality of the evidence by the trial court. Damages may not be awarded when the proof is speculative. See Bernier v. Raymark Indus., Inc., 516 A.2d 534, 543 (Me. 1986)

(quoting Schweitzer v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 758 F.2d 936, 942 (3rd Cir. 1985)). When the evidence offered to show prospective damages is in the nature of "mere guesswork and conjecture," the factfinder will be unable to determine the plaintiff's loss "with reasonable certainty." Ginn v. Penobscot Co., 334 A.2d 874, 887 (Me.1975).

[¶ 14] The proposition that some claims may not have a solid evidentiary basis, however, does not lead to the conclusion that such claims will never be presented with a meaningful evidentiary foundation. It does not follow that a difficulty in proof should, as a matter of law, preclude a claim. In other words, although overcoming speculation and conjecture may be more problematic when the damages are primarily built on future expectations, difficulty in proof does not equate to the absence of a claim at law.¹²

[¶ 15] Thus, because the distinction between ordinary earnings damages and lost earning opportunity is a...