Bianchi v. Nordby

SIMONETT, Justice

(concurring specially).

I agree with what has been written, but would like to add that I believe it will be a rare case where credible evidence is produced to segregate quantums of future damages for each year into the future. Pain and suffering and similar kinds of future damages seldom lend themselves to per annum quantification any more than to per diem quantification. See Ahlstrom v. Minneapolis, St. P. & Sault Ste. Marie R. Co., 244 Minn. 1, 29-30, 68 N.W.2d 873, 891 (1955) (fragmenting damages over a person’s life expectancy, though illuminating, may be misleading). This is not to deny the reality of future damages, nor the need for fair and adequate awards; but it needs to be recognized that the law, in projecting the future, necessarily deals with reasonable approximations. Attempts to refine these approximations in a search for absolute accuracy leads instead to artificiality.

I appreciate the difficulty for the trial bar to accommodate the new tort legislation, but my concern is that if verdict forms become esoteric, we may lose the good will and interest of jurors. We should ask jurors to answer understandable ultimate fact issues, and the shorter and simpler the verdict, the better.