Damages in FL, TX

The highest courts in Florida and Texas recently issued rulings on damages issues.  In Florida, the supreme court construed that state’s wrongful death statute to allow recovery by the “surviving spouse,” even though the plaintiff’s marriage to the decedent took place after the injury:

Ripple v. CBS Corp., 385 So.3d 1021, 1023-1024 (Fla. 2024) (construing state wrongful death statute to enable “a spouse who married the decedent after the injury” to “recover damages as a ‘surviving spouse’ ” under statute).

Meanwhile, in Texas, the supreme court allowed the claim of a mother of a healthy child born as a result of a negligently performed sterilization procedure but denied recovery of damages for both the costs of raising a healthy child and any noneconomic damages claimed by the parents:

Noe v. Velasco, 690 S.W.3d 1, 12 (Tex. 2024) (“When . . . medical negligence proximately caused an unplanned pregnancy, that claim is not foreclosed merely because the ultimate result is the birth of a healthy child. But the recoverable damages are limited. The mother may recover the cost of the sterilization procedure and economic damages designed to compensate for injuries proximately caused by the negligence, such as medical expenses incurred during the pregnancy, delivery, and postnatal period . . . But Texas law does not permit recovery of the expenses of raising the healthy child, or any noneconomic damages, because the birth and life of a healthy child do not constitute an injury under Texas law.”).