On May 9, 2016, Kathleen Machelski visited Dr. Subbarao Chavali to help manage her atrial fibrillation, and Dr. Chavali prescribed her Coumadin therapy. Machelski had a high level of Coumadin in her system after several months of treatment, and plaintiff alleged that the high level of Coumadin resulted in a subarachnoid hemorrhage or stroke. Machelski was treated in a hospital and a rehabilitation facility for the side effects and complications from the stroke. More than a year after her stroke, Machelski fell and suffered a brain bleed that ultimately led to her death.
Machelski’s daughter, Marsha Schroeder, filed a wrongful death action on behalf of Machelski’s estate, alleging that Dr. Chavali was negligent in providing medical care to Machelski. Throughout the case, plaintiff argued that Machelski had been providing household and caretaking services to her husband prior to her death and, therefore, the damages for Dr. Chavali’s alleged negligence included the loss of her caretaking services.
Under MCL 600.2922(6), the Michigan Legislature limited the damages that may be recovered in a wrongful-death action, notwithstanding the damages that might be recoverable in the underlying action. That subsection provides, in relevant part: “In every action under this section, the court or jury may award damages as the court or jury shall consider fair and equitable, under all the circumstances including reasonable medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses for which the estate is liable; reasonable compensation for the pain and suffering, while conscious, undergone by the deceased during the period intervening between the time of the injury and death; and damages for the loss of financial support and the loss of the society and companionship of the deceased.”
Dr. Chavali filed a motion for partial summary disposition as to any of plaintiff’s claims for damages that included the loss of Machelski’s caretaking services to her husband. The trial court dismissed “[p]laintiff’s claims for loss of earning capacity damages and loss of household services” because it found that it was obligated to do so under Daher. Specifically, it held that our Supreme Court had interpreted MCL 600.2922(6) to allow recovery for only the damages listed in the statute, and because household services is a separate and distinct form of damages not specifically listed in MCL 600.2922(6), it must be excluded.
The State of Michigan Court of Appeals stated in its August 6, 2026 unpublished Opinion: “our Supreme Court recently interpreted the WDA in Daher, which involved whether the estate of a deceased 13-year-old child could recover the child’s future earnings on behalf of his family members. Daher, 515 Mich at 259-261. In so doing, our Supreme Court rejected the interpretation from Thorn that the Legislature’s decision to add the term “including” to the WDA’s list of recoverable damages abrogated the decision in Baker and was intended to make the list of damages that could be recovered open-ended. Id. at 277-279. Our Supreme Court concluded that damages for lost future earnings were not recoverable under the current version of the WDA. Id. at 282.”
“Importantly, however, “loss-of-services” damages is distinct from “damages for lost future earnings,” and, as this Court has recently held, “loss-of-services damages remain available under the WDA following Daher, as they have been since Michigan’s death act was enacted in 1848 … In the current case, the trial court held that MCL 600.2922(6), prohibited any damages for the loss of Machelski’s caretaking services when considering our Supreme Court’s decision in Daher, 515 Mich at 259-261. But, as this Court held in Demott, loss-of-services damages are still recoverable under the WDA.”
Source Estate of Kathleen M. Machelski v. Great Lakes Physicians Organization, PC, No. 373754.
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