Michigan Court of Appeals rules loss-of-services damages remain available under the Wrongful Death Act.

In a published opinion, the Michigan Court of Appeals in Demott v VHS Harper-Hutzel Hospital addressed the types of damages available under the Wrongful Death Act (WDA) following the Michigan Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Daher v Prime Healthcare.

In Demott, Plaintiff, the infant decedent’s mother, brought a medical malpractice and wrongful death action alleging that various healthcare providers failed to timely diagnose and treat neonatal sepsis, resulting in the infant’s death just days after birth. The Plaintiff’s complaint sought damages for both lost future earnings and loss of household services.

Defendants moved for partial summary disposition to strike the claimed economic damages. The trial court denied the motion. The Court of Appeals granted interlocutory review and issued an opinion reaffirming Daher, holding that damages for lost future earnings (or lost earning capacity) are no longer permitted under the WDA. However, notably, the Court declined to extend Daher to bar claims for loss-of-services damages such as household contributions or aid the decedent may have provided. The Court emphasized that loss-of-services damages have been recognized under the WDA since its inception and found no indication that the Legislature intended to negate such claims in any amendments thereafter.

With this backdrop, the Court concluded that the Plaintiff’s claim for loss-of-services was not too speculative to survive summary disposition, even though the decedent was only a few days old at the time of death and the alleged services would not have begun until after age 18. In reaching this decision, the Court emphasized that a lack of precise proofs supporting a claim for loss-of-services, especially when caused by the defendant’s alleged conduct, should not bar the claim from proceeding at such an early point in the litigation.

Key takeaway:

The Court of Appeals has ruled that even after Daher, loss-of-services damages are available under the WDA. And given the language of the ruling, it’s likely that trial courts will allow loss-of-services claims to proceed even where evidentiary support is limited or heavily reliant on projections.