Jury’s Award Affirmed In Remarriage Malpractice Wrongful Death Case: The issue decided by the Appellate Court of Illinois Third District (“Illinois Appellate Court”) in it opinion dated May 10, 2023 was whether it was proper for a medical malpractice jury to consider damages for the loss of material services (i.e., household chores) beyond the date of the plaintiff’s remarriage. The jury had awarded $2,121,914.34 in damages, which was reduced to $1,697,531.48 based on its finding that the decedent was contributorily negligent.
Plaintiff testified that he and the decedent (Lois) were married in 2007, when he was 32 and she was 26. When plaintiff met Lois, she worked at McDonalds. At McDonalds, Lois had worked her way up to be a manager. In 2008, Lois began working as a clerk for the Village of Braceville. Lois enjoyed her job at the village, where she continued to work up until the time of her death. Plaintiff testified that, after Lois’s death in September 2014, he remarried in December of 2015 and that his second marriage ended in divorce approximately 18 months later. He testified that following Lois’s death, he was sad, lonely, and “not good.” By “not good,” he meant that he “wasn’t thinking right” and he was “all over the place.”
The Illinois Appellate Court held: “we determine that, when a plaintiff chooses to seek damages for loss of consortium within a statutory wrongful death action, the classic elements of a statutory wrongful death action—loss of financial support and loss of material services—are preserved and remain subject to the supreme court’s holding that remarriage must not affect the jury’s determination of damages. See Watson, 54 Ill. 2d at 500. The remaining elements of a loss of consortium claim, including “society, guidance, companionship, felicity and sexual relations,” remain subject to the Carter rule of termination upon remarriage. See Elliott, 92 Ill. 2d 535 (describing consortium); see also Carter, 130 Ill. App. 3d at 436 (the remarriage rule as applied to damages for loss of consortium) … we reject Jurak’s argument that damages for loss of material services must end upon remarriage.”
The Illinois Appellate Court analogized: “a plaintiff child or parent, for whom loss of the marital relationship is inapplicable, could seek damages for lost material services. In this way, material services are not unique to the marital relationship.”
The Illinois Appellate Court further held: “Because we have held that the trial court properly allowed plaintiff to recover for loss of material services independent of his recovery for loss of consortium, i.e., loss of the marital relationship, we need not address Jurak’s argument that, as a part of the consortium, material services share the same elusive traits as other consortium elements that render expert, market valuation inappropriate.”
Source Passafiume v. Jurak, 2023 IL App (3d) 220232.
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