Bruce Edward Cook, Administrator of the Estate of Dennis Brian Cook v. Ross Island Sand and Gravel Company, an Oregon Corporation

Plaintiff Bruce Edward Cook, administrator of the Estate of Dennis Brian Cook, filed a wrongful death action in the district court under the provisions of the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C. § 688 , and in accordance with general maritime law. The action was instituted following the death of Dennis Cook, an employee of defendant Ross Island Sand and Gravel Company who had drowned in the Columbia River on January 24, 1974. The action proceeded to a jury trial, wherein defendant admitted liability for the decedent’s death. Thus, the trial below dealt exclusively with the question of what damages, if any, defendant was obligated to pay. The jury, after hearing both eyewitness and expert testimony, returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff on two of the three elements of damage which plaintiff had claimed. The jury awarded $100,000 for the decedent’s “conscious pain and suffering” and $75,000 for the “value of deprivation of [decedent’s] comfort, care, aid and society.” However, the jury did not award damages for the “deprivation of [decedent’s] physical assistance” to his mother. After the jury had returned its verdict, defendant moved the district court to enter a judgment n.o.v. The court…