Sanchez v. Schindler
1983 Tex. LEXIS 294, 651 S.W.2d 249, 26 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 353 (1983)
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Rule of Law:
Parents may recover damages for mental anguish and loss of society and companionship for the wrongful death of a minor child. The Texas Wrongful Death Act does not limit recovery to pecuniary loss only.
Facts:
- Fourteen-year-old Johnny Sanchez was severely injured when his motorcycle collided with a pick-up truck driven by Charles Schindler, a minor.
- Johnny's parents, Eugene and Angelica Sanchez, were at home at the time and learned of the collision from a neighbor.
- At the hospital, the Sanchezes were prevented from seeing their son but caught glimpses of his bloody legs through a doorway.
- Johnny died several hours after the collision.
- Following her son's death, Angelica Sanchez suffered from traumatic depressive neurosis, despondency, disorientation, frequent headaches, and neck and shoulder pain, for which she sought medical attention.
Procedural Posture:
- Eugene and Angelica Sanchez sued Charles Schindler and his parents in a Texas trial court for the wrongful death of their son, Johnny Sanchez.
- A jury found for the Sanchezes on liability and awarded various damages, including $102,500 for Angelica Sanchez's mental anguish.
- Upon the Schindlers' motion, the trial court disregarded the jury's award for mental anguish and entered a judgment denying that specific recovery.
- Angelica Sanchez (appellant) appealed the trial court's judgment to the court of appeals (intermediate appellate court).
- The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment, upholding the denial of recovery for mental anguish.
- The Supreme Court of Texas then granted review.
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Issue:
Does the Texas Wrongful Death Act permit parents to recover damages for mental anguish for the wrongful death of a minor child, thereby abrogating the judicially-created pecuniary loss rule?
Opinions:
Majority - Spears, J.
Yes. Parents may recover damages for mental anguish for the wrongful death of a child, as the judicially-created pecuniary loss rule is an antiquated and inequitable interpretation of the Texas Wrongful Death Act. The court reasoned that the prior rule, which limited damages to the financial value of a child's services, is based on an outdated concept of children as economic assets and ignores the real loss sustained by a parent: the loss of love, advice, comfort, and companionship. The court asserted its authority to reinterpret its own prior judicial doctrines, especially in the area of tort law, arguing that legislative inaction does not prohibit judicial reappraisal of a court-made rule. This holding aligns with decisions in many other states and with previous Texas cases that recognized intangible losses, such as loss of consortium.
Dissenting - Pope, C.J.
No. The court should not overturn its long-standing interpretation of the Texas Wrongful Death Statute to authorize recovery for mental anguish. The dissent argued that the pecuniary loss rule was the intended measure of damages when the legislature enacted the statute, which was patterned after England's Lord Campbell's Act. The legislature's repeated re-enactment of the statute and its rejection of multiple bills that would have allowed damages for mental anguish demonstrate a legislative intent to maintain the pecuniary loss rule. By changing this established statutory construction, the majority is improperly legislating from the bench and intruding upon the policy-making authority of the legislature.
Concurring - Ray, J.
Yes. The concurring opinion agrees with the majority's rejection of the pecuniary loss rule but wrote to argue for two future expansions of the doctrine. First, the right to recover for loss of society and emotional injury should be extended to all statutorily designated beneficiaries in wrongful death actions, not just parents of minor children. Second, proof of physical manifestations of mental anguish should not be a necessary predicate for recovery, as the focus should be on compensating the bereaved for the emotional trauma of the death itself.
Analysis:
This is a landmark decision in Texas tort law that abolishes the century-old, judicially-created 'pecuniary loss' rule in the context of a child's wrongful death. It significantly expands the scope of damages available to parents, recognizing intangible, emotional harms like mental anguish and loss of companionship as compensable injuries. The ruling signals a judicial shift toward valuing the modern parent-child relationship in non-economic terms and affirms the court's power to evolve common law doctrines in response to changing social realities, even in the face of legislative inaction.
