{"id":37183,"date":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/uncategorized\/maryland-recognizes-damages-for-pre-impact-fright.html"},"modified":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","slug":"maryland-recognizes-damages-for-pre-impact-fright","status":"publish","type":"corporate","link":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/litigation-disputes\/maryland-recognizes-damages-for-pre-impact-fright.html","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Recognizes Damages For Pre-Impact Fright"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In two recent decisions, Maryland's highest court recognized for the first time, and then clarified what is recoverable under, a cause of action for damages for pre-impact fright. Both cases involved automobile collisions where the decedent driver was killed instantly upon impact. Each driver's estate brought a survival action for damages sustained prior to impact. In Beynon v. Montgomery County Cablevision Limited Partnership,<\/b><\/i> 351 Md. 460 (1998), a divided Court of Appeals reversed an intermediate appellate court opinion holding that Maryland law required physical injury or injury capable of objection determination for an award, let alone a case of action, to lie for mere fright. The Court of Appeals held that recovery is available for pre-impact fright when it is the proximate result of a wrongful act and when it produces a physical injury or is manifested in some objective form.<\/p>

In this case, the Court concluded that the plaintiff's fright was accompanied by both physical injury and independent objective manifestations in the form of the fatal injuries and 71 1\/2 feet of skid marks left by the vehicle.<\/p>

In Smallwood v. Bradford,<\/i> 1998 Md. LEXIS 881 (Nov. 20, 1998), the Court of Appeals clarified the damages that are recoverable under its ruling in Beynon.<\/i> The Court held that while pre-impact fright damages may be recovered by a decedent's estate in a survival action, damages for the loss of enjoyment of life are not separately recoverable because they are identical to damages for pre-impact fright. The objective evidence of emotional distress and mental anguish was satisfied in Smallwood,<\/i> by evidence of the decedent's defensive maneuvering prior to impact.<\/p>

The Court went on to hold that where the decedent fails to survive impact, post-impact loss of enjoyment was not recoverable in a survival action. The Court relied here on its recent ruling in Shirley Jones, Personal Rep. v. Flood,<\/i> 351 Md. 120 (1998), where it held that in a survival action there is no recovery for future lost earnings when the injured party dies instantaneously.<\/p>

For more information, contact Scott P. Burns<\/u> at 410\/752-9743.<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In two recent decisions, Maryland’s highest court recognized for the first time, and then clarified what is recoverable under, a cause of action for damages for pre-impact fright. Both cases involved automobile collisions where the decedent driver …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"corporate_categories":[6523,6522,6520],"class_list":["post-37183","corporate","type-corporate","status-publish","hentry","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes__civil-litigation__business-torts","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes__civil-litigation","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate\/37183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/corporate"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"corporate_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate_categories?post=37183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}