For this exercise, please consider the following facts:
From 2005 to 2015, Plaintiff Dr. James Wells owned and operated Wells Vision and Laser Eye Center in Ardmore, Oklahoma. In his practice, Dr. Wells performed laser eye surgeries using an excimer laser eye surgery machine, which he purchased in cash in 2005 for $300,000, and which had an expected lifespan of 30 years.
In early 2016, Dr. Wells decided to move his practice to Destin, Florida. To that end, Dr. Wells contacted Pilot Air Freight (“Pilot”) to arrange for the transportation of his laser eye surgery machine from Oklahoma to Florida. When arranging that shipment, both Dr. Wells and his wife and office manager, Amy Wells, had conversations with Pilot’s representative, Howard Becton. In those conversations, both Dr. Wells and Amy Wells insisted that the machine be “crated” – i.e., that a wooden crate be constructed around the machine to prevent damage to the machine – which is the standard method of shipping such expensive and sensitive medical equipment.
The shipment of Dr. Wells’s cargo was a two-leg shipment performed by two different carriers. The first carrier, Pilot, completed the first leg of the shipment by picking up the cargo in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on Friday, February 24, 2016, and transporting it 90 miles to Pilot’s warehouse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that evening. Because this leg of the journey was less than 100 miles, Dr. Wells and Pilot agreed, consistent with the manufacturer’s instructions, that the machine could be safely transported over this short distance without a crate. Before he left that evening, Pilot’s driver, Jeffrey Lee, explained to Dr. Wells that the second carrier, Fast Trac, would crate the machine at its warehouse in Oklahoma City. [Note that later on, Fast Trac denied ever agreeing to crate the machine, claimed that Pilot never instructed it to do so, and presented evidence that it has never crated any items and does not have the capability to do so, as crating is normally performed by a special crating subcontractor.]
The second carrier to handle the cargo, Fast Trac, completed the final leg of the shipment by picking up the cargo at Pilot’s warehouse in Oklahoma City on the morning of Saturday, February 25, 2016, and transporting it to its final destination in Destin, a distance of 880 miles.
The machine arrived in Destin, as scheduled, on March 2, 2016. Because it had not been crated, the machine sustained extensive damage during transit. Dr. Wells later testified that when the machine arrived in Destin, the joystick used to operate the laser and an alignment track were broken, rendering it completely inoperable.
Unfortunately for Dr. Wells, it is not clear exactly which carrier was responsible for the damage, Pilot or Fast Trac, so he sued both carriers under the Carmack Amendment, a federal statute that gives customers like Dr. Wells this option. In the same proceeding, Pilot then sued Fast Trac claiming that Fast Trac, rather than Pilot, was at fault for the lack of crating. We ultimately held a bench trial to determine who exactly was to blame for the lack of crating: the Wells’s, Pilot, or Fast Trac. There was no dispute at trial that the machine was undamaged when it was released to Pilot on February 24th. The only dispute was exactly who “caused” the damage.
At trial, evidence was presented to establish the following:
At trial, both Pilot and Fast Trac denied fault. Essentially, each carrier pointed the finger at the other, and the primary question at trial was determining which carrier was responsible for the damage. For reasons beyond the scope of this exercise (but which Professor McAllister will explain in class), Judge Rodgers found that Pilot should be held responsible for the harm.
After finding Pilot to blame, Judge Rodgers instructed the jury to calculate Dr. Wells’s damages. Please complete that calculation now. As you do so, keep in mind that the overarching goal is to make Dr. Wells whole, and to place him in the same financial position he would have been in had the machine arrived in Destin undamaged and on time (but not a better position).
The Judge has asked you to separate Dr. Wells’s damages into categories – Direct Damages, Consequential Damages, and Incidental Damages – so please complete that task as well by using the chart below to categorize the various damages items in the case.
1) TOTAL DAMAGE AWARD FOR DR. WELLS (here, specify the total amount of money Dr. Wells should receive in damages):
2)
Expense Item |
Direct Damages |
Consequential Damages (must be foreseeable to the defendant) |
Incidental Damages |
Expert witness fee |
$5,000 |
||
Answer :
Expense item |
Direct damage |
Consequential Damages (must be foreseeable to the defendant) |
Incidental Damages |
Expert witness fee |
$5,000 |
||
Damage of machine |
$300000 - $30000 = $270000 |
||
Repairing of the machine |
$40000 |
||
Purchasing of new machine |
$380000 |
||
Loss of profits |
$40000-$10000= $30000 |
||
Loss of future profits |
$200000-$100000=$100000 |
||
Marketing expert fees |
$30000 |
Total damage award for Dr. Wells = Repairing of the machine+ Purchasing of new machine – selling of parts of old damaged machine + Loss of profits + Loss of future profits + Expert witness fee+ Marketing expert fees
Total damage award for Dr. Wells = $40000 + $3800000 - $30000 + $30000 + $100000 + $5000 + $30000 = $555000.
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For this exercise, please consider the following facts: From 2005 to 2015, Plaintiff Dr. James Wells...
From 2005 to 2015, Plaintiff Dr. James Wells owned and operated Wells Vision and Laser Eye Center in Ardmore, Oklahoma. In his practice, Dr. Wells performed laser eye surgeries using an excimer laser eye surgery machine, which he purchased in cash in 2005 for $300,000, and which had an expected lifespan of 30 years. In early 2016, Dr. Wells decided to move his practice to Destin, Florida. To that end, Dr. Wells contacted Pilot Air Freight (“Pilot”) to arrange for...