Quote:
Originally Posted by steved0x
From the link in the first post there was this info at the bottom I just saw:
"New York law does not allow the Ward family to collect damages for their own pain and suffering but does allow parents to recover loss of expected future support and care that their child could have provided."
How much could that be? It doesn't sound like it would be a whole lot compared with some sort of extravagant damages award. Maybe I read it wrong.
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This "model" came up in the GM ignition debacle. The families of drivers who were killed as direct consequence of GM's outrageous negligence received less money if the driver was middle-aged than the family of young driver with twice the remaining life expectancy.
I guess extravagant would be in the eyes of the jury member. If they feel negatively about the law barring families from punishing someone who contributed to their child's death, they could do an end run and award damages based on Ward's trajectory into the professional driving ranks. Being that he was driving at the level of a seasoned professional during a dirt track race, a persuasive argument could be presented (to someone unhappy with the NY law) that this may have been the next Joey Logano. Certainly if the family could show races in which Logano was beating NASCAR champions at age 20, on dirt tracks. Or alternatively, that Ward was accomplishing something that even Logano hadn't. Juries don't have to prove their decisions, it's up to the appellate process to deem it excessive or not. Not a good gamble for Stewart.
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