## Facts

- Yaeko Otani, age 81, underwent pacemaker implantation surgery performed by Dr. David R. Broudy.
- During the procedure, Dr. Broudy punctured Otani’s aorta, causing uncontrollable internal bleeding.
- Otani was under anesthesia when injured, remained unconscious, and died several hours later without regaining consciousness.
- Evidence showed Otani led an active life and, absent the negligence, had an expected additional life expectancy of about 7.9 years.
- Otani’s personal representative sued Dr. Broudy under Washington wrongful death and survival statutes for negligence causing death.
- After a bench trial, the superior court found Dr. Broudy negligent and liable.
- The superior court awarded (1) wrongful death damages of $125,000 to each of Otani’s two adult children, and (2) survival damages to the estate including $450,000 for “loss of enjoyment of life” tied to shortened life expectancy, plus medical and burial expenses.
- Dr. Broudy appealed only the $450,000 noneconomic survival award for loss of enjoyment of life.

## Issues

1. Whether Washington’s survival statutes permit an estate to recover damages for a decedent’s loss of enjoyment of life (including shortened life expectancy) when the decedent was never conscious of the injury and experienced no pre-death awareness or suffering.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the $450,000 survival award for loss of enjoyment of life tied to shortened life expectancy.
- The court held that such damages are not recoverable by a decedent’s estate in a survival action under Washington law.
- The court left undisturbed the wrongful death awards to the adult children and the survival recovery for medical and burial expenses, which were not challenged on appeal.

## Legal Principles

- Washington survival statutes preserve only causes of action and elements of damage the decedent could have maintained personally if still alive; they do not create new causes of action for the estate.
- An estate cannot recover a “loss of life” or “shortened life expectancy” component as loss-of-enjoyment-of-life damages in a survival action because the decedent, while alive, would have had no personal claim for the fact of her own death or lost future years.
- Noneconomic survival damages are limited to harms personally experienced by the decedent before death (such as conscious pain and suffering); where the decedent remained unconscious from injury to death, there is no subjective loss to compensate in that category.
- Wrongful death and survival remedies serve different functions: wrongful death compensates specified beneficiaries for their losses from the death, while survival actions preserve the decedent’s own claims.

## Conclusion

The court ruled that Washington survival statutes do not allow an estate to recover loss-of-enjoyment-of-life damages measured by the decedent’s shortened life expectancy when the decedent never regained consciousness and thus had no personal claim for such loss that could survive to the estate.


Otani v. Broudy, 114 Wash. App. 545, 59 P.3d 126 (Wash. Ct. App. 2002)