Noneconomic Damages
Noneconomic damages, including things like pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, emotional distress, and injury to reputation and humiliation, are notoriously difficult to assign dollar amount to. Nevertheless, Washington courts have put the calculation of noneconomic damages almost entirely at the discretion of the jury. Rasor v. Retail Credit Co., 87 Wn.2d 516, 531, 554 P.2d 1041 (1976). “[T]here need be no evidence which assigns an actual dollar value to the injury.” Id. The jury can calculate noneconomic damages however it pleases, with few limitations.
Courts are allowed to adjust an award of noneconomic damages by a jury, but only if the award “is outside the range of substantial evidence in the record, or shocks [the court’s] conscience, or appears to have been arrived at as the result of passion or prejudice,” id. (citing Mitchell v. Lantry, 69 Wn.2d 796, 420 P.2d 345 (1966)), or “[w]hen the amount awarded exceeds rational bounds to the extent that the award could only have been reached by a jury that had forsaken sensible thought and reached its verdict out of outrage, animosity or spite . . . .” Ryan v. Westard, 12 Wn. App. 500, 513, 530 P.2d 687 (1975). This is a very high standard. In practice, “[a]n appellate court ‘rarely’ overturns a jury verdict on this basis . . . .” Adcox v. Children’s Orthopedic Hosp. & Med. Ctr., 123 Wn.2d 15, 33, 864 P.2d 921 (1993) (quoting Washburn, 120 Wn.2d at 268, 840 P.2d 86)).
Attempts by legislators and attorneys to constrain the jury’s discretion have met with disapproval. Courts have rejected attempts by attorneys to use jury verdicts from similar cases to show that a damages award was too high. E.g., Joyce v. State Dep’t of Corrections, 116 Wn. App. 569, 603, 75 P.3d 548 (Div. 2 2003).
The Washington State legislature attempted to limit noneconomic damages in personal injury and death cases using a formula based on the average annual wage and life expectancy of the plaintiff. RCW 4.56.250. However, the Washington State Supreme Court struck the statute down as a violation of the Washington State Constitution, which provides the right to a trial by jury on issues of fact. Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp., 112 Wn.2d 636, 771 P.2d 711 (1989) (citing Article 1, section 21 of the Washington State Constitution).