## Facts

- A pizza-delivery vehicle was parked in the steep driveway of a fraternity house at West Virginia University, blocking other vehicles.
- Brett Weinstein, assisted by fraternity member Matthew Kiser, entered the delivery vehicle to move it.
- They released the emergency brake and placed the vehicle in neutral, then failed to maintain control.
- The unattended vehicle rolled down the driveway, crossed a sidewalk, and struck three pedestrians.
- Jennifer Wehner died from her injuries; Nicole Fisher and Jessica Landau suffered serious injuries.
- Jennifer Wehner’s estate sought wrongful-death damages, including compensation for loss of future earnings.

## Issues

1. Whether a wrongful-death award for loss of future earnings must, as a matter of law, be reduced by the decedent’s expected personal maintenance and living expenses over her lifetime.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury to apply a mandatory living-expense offset when calculating loss of future earnings.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the judgment for the plaintiffs.
- The court held that West Virginia law does not require a jury to subtract the decedent’s projected personal living expenses from an award for loss of future earnings in every wrongful-death case.
- The trial court did not err in refusing defendants’ requested jury instruction imposing an automatic offset.
- The court declined to disturb the jury’s damages award absent a showing that it was plainly excessive or unsupported by the evidence.

## Legal Principles

- Under West Virginia’s wrongful-death statute, damages are those the jury deems “fair and just,” and the statute does not impose a rigid formula for economic loss.
- “Loss of future earnings” or earning capacity is not capable of exact calculation; the jury may assess it using factors such as the decedent’s age, health, life expectancy, abilities, and probable career path.
- The decedent’s personal living expenses may be considered by the jury where supported by evidence, but they are not a mandatory, mechanical deduction from projected earnings.
- Appellate courts generally defer to a jury’s wrongful-death damages award unless it is plainly excessive or lacks evidentiary support.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed a wrongful-death verdict that included loss-of-future-earnings damages, ruling that West Virginia law does not require a mandatory offset for a decedent’s anticipated personal living expenses and leaving such considerations to the jury’s evaluation of the evidence under the statute’s “fair and just” standard.


Wehner v. Weinstein, 444 S.E.2d 27 (W. Va. 1994)