Section 37 Caselaw Guidelines for Using an Economist

• Library: Damages 2012

One element of the plaintiff’s damages is lost earnings. Earnings loss is to be measured by the difference between (1) the value of the plaintiff’s past and future earnings considering the injury and (2) the value of the plaintiff’s past and future earnings if there had been
no injury, reduced to “present value.” Coffman v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co.,378 S.W.2d 583, 595 (Mo. 1964). The courts have recognized that an economist is in an appropriate position to express opinions on these losses. An economist, once qualified as an expert, may calculate and testify as to the value of the plaintiff’s economic losses as long as the predictions are based on (1) reasonable certainty and (2) the best available evidence. Sampson v. Mo. Pac. R.R. Co., 560 S.W.2d 573, 589 (Mo. banc 1978). The economist’s testimony will not be excluded as speculative unless there is no substantial evidence in the case that can serve as a basis for reasonable calculations. Id.at 589.

Coffman,378 S.W.2d 583, Sampson,560 S.W.2d 573, and Anderson v. Burlington Northern Railroad Co., 700 S.W.2d 469 (Mo. App. E.D. 1985), when read together, approve an economist’s use of the following methods in projecting economic losses:

Using mortality tables to establish life expectancy

Projecting future earnings based on past earnings history

Projecting future earnings based on government statistics absent an...