reducing $4,000,000 award in personal injury case to $1,500,000 for teenage girl who had suffered severe burns over 42% of her body, resulting in “long and painful periods of hospitalization and treatment, skin grafting, debridement, permanently disfiguring scars and excruciating pain and- suffering”
How later courts described this case
- reducing $4,000,000 award in personal injury case to $1,500,000 for teenage girl who had suffered severe burns over 42% of her body, resulting in “long and painful periods of hospitalization and treatment, skin grafting, debridement, permanently disfiguring scars and excruciating pain and- suffering”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Sweeney, J.,
concurs in part and dissents in part in the following memorandum. Sweeney, J. (concurring in part and dissenting in part). I regret that I am unable to fully agree with the result reached by the majority. While my disagreement is a narrow one, it is, I believe, significant, necessitating a brief explanation. Where, as here, the court is to sustain the verdict on the issues of liability but concludes that the verdict is excessive and recommends a 62% reduction in the damages, I am of the view that the better procedure is to remand for retrial on the question of damages. To adopt the majority’s method unfairly deprives plaintiff Donna Rush of her entitlement to a jury assessment of damages.