General Info

Accidents
(except MVAs)

Types of Injury

Motor Vehicle Accidents

 

 

Dorn - Hedonic Losses in Hawaii

In Dorn v. Burlington N. Santa Fe R.R., No. 03-35071 (9th Cir. Feb. 7, 2005), the the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that hedonic damages testimony by economic experts in personal injury cases is admissible. Since Hawaii is located in the 9th Circuit, it appears that this case applies to the Federal court here. (The Hawaii Supreme has not permitted such testimony.) Although the decision actually overturned a $6.7 million jury verdict in a wrongful death case, the Ninth Circuit did so because it found that the trial court erred in its decision to exclude hedonic damages testimony from the defendant's economic damages expert after allowing such testimony from the plaintiff's expert. The opinion would appear to stand for two propositions: (1) hedonic damages testimony by an economist which projects the value of a human life from the premiums paid for safe products, safe occupational conditions, etc. is admissible in Federal Court here and (2) a ruling that one expert's testimony is reliable under Daubert does not necessarily imply that an opposing expert's contrary opinion must be unreliable.