The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois held in its September 19, 2024 Opinion: “in a claim under the [Wrongful Death] Act, a plaintiff’s remarriage does not affect the damages recoverable for the loss of a decedent’s material services. We therefore affirm judgment of the appellate court, which affirmed the trial court’s order denying defendant’s motion in limine seeking to limit the testimony of plaintiff’s expert witness regarding plaintiff’s loss of material services damages to the period preceding plaintiff’s remarriage.”
“[W]e overrule the courts in Dotson and Pfeifer to the extent those courts held that (1) material services are included in the loss of consortium damages recognized in Elliott and (2) material services damages are subject to the Carter
court’s limitation on loss of consortium damages where the plaintiff spouse has remarried.”
Underlying Facts
Plaintiff, Paul Passafiume, as independent administrator of the estate of Lois Passafiume, filed an Illinois medical malpractice complaint against defendants Daniel Jurak, D.O., and Daniel Jurak, D.O., S.C., as well as other defendants, asserting wrongful death and survival actions. Plaintiff alleged that defendants were negligent in their care and treatment of Lois for a blood clot, leading to her death in September 2014. The case ultimately proceeded to a jury
trial.
The Illinois medical malpractice wrongful death jury found in favor of plaintiff and awarded plaintiff $2,121,914.34 in damages. The damage award was reduced to $1,697,531.48 based upon the jury’s finding that Lois was 20% contributorily negligent. Included in the jury’s breakdown of damages was $1,434,025 for the “Value of Earnings and Household Services Lost and the present cash value of the Earnings and Household Services reasonably certain to be lost in the future.” The award for lost earnings and lost household services did not distinguish between the amount awarded for each item.
Defendants appealed, arguing that the trial court committed reversible error in denying their motion in limine and allowing the jury to consider damages for loss of material services beyond the date of plaintiff’s remarriage. The Illinois appellate court concluded that a plaintiff’s remarriage did not terminate loss of material services damages and affirmed the trial court. 2023 IL App (3d) 220232, ¶ 77. The Illinois Supreme Court subsequently allowed defendants’ petition for leave to appeal.
Defendants again argued that material services are included within loss of consortium damages and terminate upon a plaintiff’s remarriage. The Illinois Supreme Court stated that, historically, both statutory wrongful death actions and common-law loss of consortium actions allowed damages for the loss of material services performed by the deceased spouse. The claims did not overlap, because a plaintiff bringing a statutory wrongful death action could not seek damages for loss of consortium … “Elliott was intended to expand the relief available under the Act to include loss of consortium damages that previously had been excluded from the Act. The loss of consortium damages that had been excluded from the Act were those set forth in Elliott: the plaintiff’s loss of the decedent’s society, companionship, and conjugal relationship. We agree with the appellate court that to hold otherwise potentially results in the disparate treatment of plaintiff spouses versus next of kin plaintiffs in claims under the Act.”
Source Passafiume v. Jurak, D.O., 2024 IL 129761.
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