## Facts

- Joaquin Martinez Vargas died on September 21, 2002 in a construction accident.
- The estate’s administrator sued Iglesia Ni Christo for negligence and wrongful death.
- The trial court granted summary judgment to the estate on liability; a jury trial addressed damages only.
- The jury awarded past and future pecuniary damages, including future lost earnings and future parental loss; it awarded no future spousal services.
- After post-trial motions, the church stipulated to additional future lost spousal services based on its economist, resulting in total future damages of $3,562,000.
- The parties disputed how to compute (1) the present value of future wrongful death damages under CPLR 5041 and (2) prejudgment (preverdict) interest under CPLR 5001.
- The trial court (a) discounted the future damages to the date of death and (b) awarded interest from the date of death to the verdict; the Appellate Division affirmed as limited by the parties’ stipulation.

## Issues

1. Whether, in a wrongful death action, future pecuniary damages may be discounted back to the date of death and then augmented by CPLR 5001 interest from the date of death to the date of verdict.
2. Whether awarding prejudgment interest on future wrongful death damages, after discounting, improperly overcompensates the plaintiff.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed.
- The trial court properly treated wrongful death damages as accruing at death under EPTL 5-4.3(a).
- The court properly discounted future wrongful death damages back to the date of death and awarded CPLR 5001 interest from the date of death to the date of verdict.
- The court rejected the claim that this method necessarily created a windfall where future damages were properly discounted under CPLR 5041.
- The court limited its review to the stipulated question and did not decide whether interest must be applied to a figure discounted to the verdict date rather than the death date.

## Legal Principles

- Wrongful death pecuniary damages under EPTL 5-4.3(a) are measured as of the date of death.
- CPLR 5001 permits prejudgment interest in wrongful death actions from the date the damages are deemed to have accrued; when damages are fixed as of death, interest may run from death to verdict to compensate for delay in recovery.
- CPLR 5041 (article 50-B) requires statutory present-value treatment of future damages; when future damages are properly discounted, adding CPLR 5001 interest to the date-of-death value does not inherently duplicate the discounting process.
- A “windfall” concern arises when interest is applied to future damages that have not been properly discounted; that concern is avoided when discounting is correctly performed and interest is calculated on the appropriately discounted amount.

## Conclusion

The court held that, in a wrongful death case where damages are measured as of the date of death, a court may discount future pecuniary damages back to the date of death and then award CPLR 5001 prejudgment interest from the date of death to the verdict, provided the future damages have been properly discounted under CPLR 5041 and the calculation does not rest on an undiscounted future-value award.


Toledo v. Iglesia Ni Christo, 18 N.Y.3d 363 (N.Y. 2012)