## Facts

- A 17-year-old high school student was driving to a cooperative education job on a rural two-lane road in foggy, low-visibility conditions.
- A semitrailer truck driver, acting within the scope of employment, moved into the oncoming lane to pass two vehicles despite the fog.
- To avoid a collision, the student swerved onto the shoulder, then reentered the roadway to avoid a culvert, lost control, left the roadway, and overturned.
- The student died from injuries sustained in the crash.
- The parents, individually and as estate administrator, sued the driver and the trucking company, asserting statutory wrongful-death and survival claims and related damages theories.
- A jury returned verdicts for plaintiffs, including substantial wrongful-death and survival damages.
- The trial court instructed the jury that, in a parent’s wrongful-death action for a minor child, there is a presumption of substantial pecuniary loss that included loss of the child’s “society.”

## Issues

1. Whether “pecuniary injuries” recoverable by parents for the wrongful death of a minor child include loss of the child’s society.
2. Whether it was error to instruct the jury that substantial pecuniary loss, including loss of society, is presumed from the wrongful death of a minor child.

## Decision

- The court held that parents may recover for loss of a minor child’s society as part of “pecuniary injuries” under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act.
- The court held the “presumption of substantial pecuniary loss including society” instruction was improper and should not be used in future cases because it intrudes on the jury’s factfinding role.
- The judgment was affirmed, and the cause was remanded for proceedings consistent with the opinion.

## Legal Principles

- “Pecuniary injuries” under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act are not limited to economic contributions and may include intangible familial losses, including a parent’s loss of a child’s society.
- A presumption may serve limited procedural purposes, but jury instructions should not direct jurors to presume “substantial” damages; jurors must decide the existence and amount of loss from the evidence.
- Proper damages instructions should identify legally recoverable elements (including loss of society) without implying that any element is established as a matter of presumption.

## Conclusion

The court recognized parental loss of a minor child’s society as compensable “pecuniary” damages in wrongful-death actions, while rejecting jury instructions that tell jurors to presume substantial pecuniary loss, thereby preserving the jury’s role in valuing such damages based on the evidence.


Bullard v. Barnes, 468 N.E.2d 1228 (Ill. 1984)