BrohanDavey

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Now they’re talking about Latinos being socially conservative and being concerned about transgender issues.

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Compensatory damages are further divided into the broad categories of special damages and general damages. Special damages are those which have a "ready market value," such that the amount of the damages theoretically may be determined with relative certainty, including medical expenses and lost wages, while general damages are inherently speculative and cannot be calculated with mathematical certainty. Id. § 7-2 (footnotes omitted). This court has previously defined general damages as "those which may not be fixed with any degree of pecuniary exactitude but which, instead, involve mental or physical pain or suffering, inconvenience, the loss of gratification of intellectual or physical enjoyment, or other losses of life or life-style which cannot really be measured definitively in terms of money." Duncan v. Kansas City S.R.R., 00-0066, p. 13 (La. 10/30/00), 773 So.2d 670, 682; Boswell v. Roy O. Martin Lumber Co., Inc., 363 So.2d 506, 507 (La. 1978); Anderson v. Welding Testing Lab., Inc., 304 So.2d 351, 352 (La. 1974).

Loss of enjoyment of life falls within the definition of general damages because it involves the quality of a person's life, which is inherently speculative and cannot be measured definitively in terms of money. "The loss of gratification of intellectual or physical enjoyment" included in the definition of general damages directly results from a person's "inability to participate in the activities or pleasures of life that a person formerly enjoyed" as set forth in the definition of loss of enjoyment of life. Similarly, "the loss of life or life-style" included in the definition of general damages is substantially similar to the "detrimental alteration of a person's life or lifestyle" as included in the definition of loss of enjoyment of life. Thus, loss of enjoyment of life is clearly encompassed within "the loss of gratification of intellectual or physical enjoyment, or other losses of life or life-style" component of this court's existing definition of general damages.

La. C.C. art. 2315 authorizes a tort victim to be compensated for the damage sustained as a result of the delict, including those for loss of enjoyment of life, if proven. Moreover, this court has clearly defined general damages to include loss of enjoyment of life. Consequently, loss of enjoyment of life is a compensable component of general damages under both La. C.C. art. 2315 and this court's existing definition of general damages. Therefore, the only remaining issue is whether loss of enjoyment of life may be separated from other elements of general damages, such as mental and physical pain and suffering, and whether that separation may be reflected by having a line for loss of enjoyment of life on a jury verdict form. See Joseph v. Broussard Rice Mill, Inc., 00-0628, p. 1 (La. 10/30/00), 772 So.2d 94, 106-107 (Victory, J., assigning additional reasons) (stating "this Court has never squarely addressed the issue of awarding hedonic damages for loss of enjoyment of life as a separate element of damages").

As established above, loss of enjoyment of life is a component of general damages and therefore loss of enjoyment of life is not separate and distinct from general damages. Nevertheless, general damages in Louisiana are routinely dissected. Courts commonly list different elements of general damages, including mental anguish and physical pain and suffering, both past and future, separately. In addition, general damages for permanent scarring and/or disfigurement are often listed separately. See, e.g., Joseph, 00-0628 at p. 17 (La. 10/30/00), 772 So.2d at 106-107, n. 6; Degruise v. Houma Courier Newspaper Corp., 95-1862, p. 9 (La. 11/25/96), 683 So.2d 689, 694. Thus, allowing a separate award for loss of enjoyment of life would not offend the existing concept of general damages and would reflect the accepted method of listing elements of general damages separately.

Moreover, loss of enjoyment of life is conceptually distinct from other components of general damages, including pain and suffering. Pain and suffering, both physical and mental, refers to the pain, discomfort, inconvenience, anguish and emotional trauma that accompanies an injury. Loss of enjoyment of life, in comparison, refers to detrimental alterations of the person's life or lifestyle or the person's inability to participate in the activities or pleasures of life that were formerly enjoyed prior to the injury. In contrast to pain and suffering, whether or not a plaintiff experiences a detrimental lifestyle change depends on both the nature and severity of the injury and the lifestyle of the plaintiff prior to the injury.

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