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Analysis: The Tennessee Tort
Reform Bill of 2011
required a judge or jury to make specific findings for certain types of
damages. T.C.A. § 29-39-103 was created by
the 2011 Tennessee Tort Reform Legislation and the statute provided as follows:
(a) If liability
is found in a civil action, then the trier of fact, in addition to other
appropriate findings, shall make separate findings for each claimant specifying
the amount of:
(1) Any past
damages for each of the following types of damages:
(A) Medical and
other costs of health care;
(B) Other economic
damages; and
(C) Noneconomic
damages; and
(2) Any future
damages and the periods over which they will accrue, on an annual basis, for each of the following types of
damages:
(A) Medical and
other costs of health care;
(B) Other economic
damages; and
(C) Noneconomic
damages.
(b) If the
plaintiff claims a catastrophic loss or injury has occurred, and if there is a
disputed issue of fact regarding whether such loss or injury has occurred, the
trier of fact must make a specific finding of fact, by special verdict, that
the loss or injury suffered by the plaintiff is catastrophic as defined in §
29-39-102(d).
(c) The
calculation of all future medical care and other costs of health care and
future noneconomic losses must reflect the costs and losses during the period
of time the claimant will sustain those costs and losses. The calculation for
other economic loss must be based on the losses during the period of time the
claimant would have lived but for the injury upon which the claim is based. All
such calculations of future losses shall be adjusted to reflect net present
value.
(bold and underlined words removed in 2013
legislation). In 2013, the Tennessee
Legislature made an amendment to this statute in Public Chapter No. 379 which was signed
into law by Governor Bill Haslam on May 14, 2013. This bill simply deleted the words “on an
annual basis” under T.C.A. §
29-39-103(a)(2).
Prior to this amendment the trier of fact was
required to make a specific finding of future damages in the three categories
listed above (in subsection (a)(2)) “on an annual basis” for each year in the
future. Obviously, it is impossible to
know how long a plaintiff will live in the future but this statute as written
in the original Tennessee Tort
Reform Bill of 2011
required the jury to identify the damages year by year. This 2013 change abolishes that requirement
and the amendment took effect immediately on May 14, 2013 when the bill was
passed.
Follow me on Twitter at @jasonalee for updates from the Tennessee Defense Litigation
blog.
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