## Facts

- Earl and Ila Selders, as administrators of the estates of their three minor children, sued Charles Dale Armentrout and William Armentrout for wrongful death after an automobile accident killed the children (approximately ages 15, 13, and 9).
- A jury found the defendants negligent.
- The jury awarded damages limited to the exact amount of the children’s medical and funeral expenses.
- The trial court instructed that, aside from medical and funeral expenses, damages were limited to the net pecuniary value of the children’s expected contributions and services (expected value minus reasonable support costs).
- The parents appealed only the measure of damages, seeking allowance for loss of the children’s society, comfort, and companionship.

## Issues

1. Under Nebraska’s wrongful death statute, are damages for the wrongful death of a minor child limited to pecuniary loss, or do they also include the parents’ loss of the child’s society, comfort, and companionship?
2. Did the trial court err by instructing the jury to exclude nonpecuniary elements of damage in a minor child wrongful death case?

## Decision

- Liability was affirmed.
- The damages award was reversed, and the case was remanded for a new trial limited to damages.
- The court held that damages for the wrongful death of a minor child are not confined to pecuniary loss and must include loss of the child’s society, comfort, and companionship.
- The court rejected prior Nebraska decisions that had continued to apply a pecuniary-only measure despite statutory revisions removing “pecuniary injuries” language.

## Legal Principles

- In Nebraska, wrongful death damages are measured by the damages sustained by the statutory beneficiaries and are not restricted to pecuniary injuries.
- In a wrongful death action for a minor child, recoverable damages include:
  - Economic loss, including medical and funeral expenses and the net value of the child’s reasonably expected contributions and services (reduced by reasonable support costs).
  - Non-economic loss to the parents for the child’s society, comfort, and companionship.
- Courts should interpret the wrongful death statute according to its current text; a judicially imposed limitation inconsistent with the statute’s language may be abandoned even if longstanding.
- The speculative character of wrongful death damages does not bar recovery for intangible relational losses; juries may assess such losses as they do in other contexts.

## Conclusion

The Nebraska Supreme Court held that parents suing for the wrongful death of a minor child may recover not only economic losses but also damages for loss of the child’s society, comfort, and companionship, and it ordered a new trial on damages because the jury was instructed to apply an improper pecuniary-only measure.


Selders v. Armentrout, 190 Neb. 275, 207 N.W.2d 686 (Neb. 1973)