## Facts

- Nancy Hollander Feldman, age 25, died in the June 7, 1971 crash of Allegheny Airlines Flight 485 near New Haven, Connecticut.
- Her husband, Reid Laurence Feldman, sued in diversity as administrator of her estate under Connecticut’s wrongful-death statute.
- Allegheny stipulated to liability; the case was tried to the court on damages only, and the plaintiff waived punitive damages.
- The trial court awarded $444,056 based on Connecticut’s measure of damages: the decedent’s lost “value of life,” including lost earning capacity and loss of enjoyment of non-remunerative activities, minus necessary personal living expenses.
- The trial court found that Nancy Feldman had a college degree, a work history in government-related positions, and a likely future career in Washington, D.C.
- The trial court further found she likely would have an approximately eight-year child-rearing period with only part-time employment.
- No damages were awarded for conscious pain and suffering (too speculative), and prejudgment interest was denied.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court properly calculated lost earning capacity, including projected earnings during an anticipated child-rearing period and the use of an inflation-adjusted discount rate.
2. Whether the trial court properly estimated and deducted the decedent’s necessary personal living expenses, including location-specific cost-of-living assumptions.
3. Whether the trial court omitted any legally permissible elements of damages that should be included if the award were reduced.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed the trial court’s general legal framework under Connecticut wrongful-death law and approved, in general, its approach to considering inflation in selecting a discount rate.
- The court vacated the damages judgment and remanded for recalculation because:
  - earnings during the child-rearing period were valued using a full-time salary despite findings supporting only part-time work; and
  - necessary personal living expenses were underestimated and required revision to reflect realistic costs, including those associated with the expected place of residence.
- The court rejected the plaintiff’s cross-appeal seeking additional damage elements, holding the trial court did not fail to recognize any appropriate category of damages.

## Legal Principles

- In a Connecticut wrongful-death action, damages are measured by the decedent’s loss of the value of her life, not by the value of the estate she would have accumulated.
- The value-of-life calculation may include lost earning capacity and loss of enjoyment of non-remunerative activities, reduced by necessary personal living expenses.
- Present-value discounting may account for expected inflation, but projections for earnings and expenses must be internally consistent with the assumed inflation/discount methodology.
- Damages findings must align with the court’s factual assumptions about the decedent’s likely life course; projections inconsistent with those findings require correction on remand.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit upheld the governing Connecticut value-of-life framework and generally accepted inflation-aware discounting, but vacated and remanded because the award overstated earnings during an expected part-time child-rearing period and understated the decedent’s personal living expenses; it also rejected any expansion of damages categories on cross-appeal.


Feldman v. Allegheny Airlines, Inc., 524 F.2d 384 (2d Cir. 1975)