Ray Gosch d/b/a Ray Gosch Trucking v. Dick Juelfs

Summary

The Iowa Supreme Court held that a business owner could not recover consequential damages for lost income attributed to the death of a key employee in a vehicle collision. It further held that interest on the truck-tractor property damage was recoverable from the collision date because the property damage was complete at that time.

Holdings

1. An employer may not recover damages for lost business income resulting from the absence or death of an injured employee; the district court properly refused to submit Gosch's consequential-damages claim to the jury.
2. When the trier of fact fixes a definite amount for a damage item shown to have been complete at a particular time, prejudgment interest is recoverable on that item from the time the damage was complete. Gosch was therefore entitled to interest on the $9,980 property-damage award from July 7, 1999, under Iowa Code section 535.2(1)(b).

Questions Presented

1. Whether an employer may recover consequential business-income damages for the loss or death of a key employee caused by a tortious injury.
2. Whether prejudgment interest on a definite property-damage award that was complete on the collision date is recoverable from that date rather than from the filing of the action.

Disposition

other