Flansberg v. Paulson

It is obvious from our cases and from those in other jurisdictions that juries, fully instructed in the plaintiff’s right to damages in personal injury cases, frequently feel that an award of so-called special damages is by itself adequate to compensate the plaintiff for his entire loss.① Moreover, these reported cases undoubtedly constitute a very small portion of all the cases in which a jury awards only the amount of special damages sought. The fact that juries commonly make such an award despite the existence of obvious elements of “general” damages suggests, perhaps, that the rule…