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.
On August 12, 2025, a deadly crash happened in Florida when an illegal immigrant named Harjinder Singh driving a commercial truck made an illegal U-turn on a freeway - killing 3. The accident resulted in criticism of the states of Washington and California for their commercial driver licensing policies which issued a CDL to an illegal immigrant who could not speak English and had flunked the CDL test 10 times. Another similar fatal crash took place in California on October 21, 2025, when another illegal immigrant, Jashanpreet Singh, driving a commercial truck failed to even brake as he crashed into the back of a line of stopped traffic - killing 3. He also had been given a CDL by Gavin Newsom's DMV. Three dead after illegal immigrant driving a commercial truck causes freeway mayhem
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