Life — continued from Page 50
verdict to parents of an adult child find- ing that “we are unable to say, as a mat- ter of law, the award of a similar amount to [decedent’s] parents is so dispropor- tionate to their loss as to shock the con- science and warrant interference with the jury’s verdict”].) The mere fact that a judgment is
large, however, does not mean that the verdict is the result of passion or preju- dice. (DiRosario, 196 Cal.App.3d at 1241.) “Each case must be determined on its own facts.” (Ibid.; see also Rodriguez v. McDonnell Douglas Corp. (1978) 87 Cal.App.3d 626, 655 [“The fact that an award may set a precedent by its size does not in and of itself render it suspect. The determination of the jury can only be assessed by examination of the partic- ular circumstances involved.].)
In Rufo v. Simpson, O.J. Simpson
contended that the $8.5 million awarded in non-economic damages to the parents of decedent Ronald Goldman was exces- sive and that the evidence concerning the parents’ loss of their adult son, who lived away from home, was insufficient to justi- fy the jury’s verdict in such a large amount. In that case, the evidence was that the decedent lived away from home, and had not seen his mother in 12 years. The appellate court upheld a damages award finding that “[a]lthough the ver- dict is very large, this alone does not compel the conclusion the award was attributable to passion or prejudice.” (Id. at 615.) The court found that Simpson’s argument primarily focused on the fact that the largest award in a published case that his counsel could find for the loss of
comfort and society in the wrongful death of an adult child was $2 million. The court rejected that as the basis for a finding that the verdict was excessive. (Id. at 615-616; see also, Zibbell v. Southern Pac. Co. (1911) 160 Cal. 237 [finding that the mere fact that a personal injury ver- dict was more than twice as large as the largest verdict previously rendered in a similar case does not show the passion or prejudice necessary for granting a new trial].) In trying to establish the “excessive-
ness” of the verdicts, defendants often present other jury verdicts in what they deem as “comparable” wrongful death cases as a basis for comparison. Defendants fail to realize, however, that a human being is not a fungible object
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