## Facts

- In 1979, 14-year-old Johnny Sanchez was critically injured in a collision between his motorcycle and a pickup truck driven by minor Charles J. Schindler, Jr.
- Paramedics treated Johnny at the scene and transported him to a hospital; Johnny’s parents learned of the accident from a neighbor.
- At the hospital, the parents were prevented from seeing Johnny and only briefly saw part of his injuries before he died several hours later.
- Johnny’s parents sued Schindler and his parents under a wrongful-death theory, both individually and as heirs.
- The jury found liability and awarded damages for Johnny’s pre-death pain and suffering, medical expenses, funeral and burial expenses, and property damage.
- For parental damages, the jury found no pecuniary loss but awarded $102,500 for Angelica Sanchez’s mental anguish.

## Issues

1. Whether parents may recover damages for mental anguish under the Texas Wrongful Death Act for the death of a minor child, or whether recovery is limited to pecuniary loss.
2. Whether Texas should retain the pecuniary-loss-only measure of damages for a child’s wrongful death.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Texas reversed the court of appeals in part and rendered judgment for Angelica Sanchez for the $102,500 mental-anguish amount found by the jury.
- The court held the Texas Wrongful Death Act permits recovery of mental-anguish damages for the wrongful death of a child.
- The court rejected the strict pecuniary loss rule as the exclusive measure of parental damages in child-death cases.
- The court concluded the trial court erred by disregarding the jury’s mental-anguish findings based solely on a perceived legal bar, rather than evidentiary insufficiency.

## Legal Principles

- The Texas Wrongful Death Act authorizes recovery of non-economic losses suffered by statutory beneficiaries, including mental anguish, in addition to economic damages.
- Limiting parental recovery for a child’s wrongful death to pecuniary loss alone is inconsistent with the Act’s compensatory purpose and is not required as an exclusive measure of damages.
- When a jury finds mental anguish and the award is set aside only because the trial court applies an incorrect legal limitation, the proper remedy may be to render judgment on the verdict rather than remand.

## Conclusion

The Texas Supreme Court held that parents may recover mental-anguish damages for the wrongful death of their minor child under the Texas Wrongful Death Act, rejected pecuniary loss as the sole measure of such damages, and reinstated the jury’s mental-anguish award to the child’s mother.


Sanchez v. Schindler, 651 S.W.2d 249 (Tex. 1983)