First Principles of Business Law

3. Compensatory damages for personal injury

3.1.a.6. Gratuitous benefits

Read the facts below and then answer the question.

A is seriously injured in an accident caused by B's negligence. After a short stay in hospital, A returns home where his wife and adult children provide the almost continuous care that he needs. Being members of the same family, they do not charge A for this help. When suing B for damages, A includes a claim for the cost of nursing, basing this claim on the ordinary cost of hiring a full-time qualified nurse. B argues that since A has not paid for the nursing, he is not entitled to any such sum.

Which of the alternatives below most accurately reflects the current common law?

(a) When a plaintiff is cared for at home by family members or friends acting voluntarily and without payment, no monetary value can be put on the provision of such care, and the plaintiff is not entitled under the common law to damages for costs that were not actually incurred.

(b) Even if nursing and other services have been provided gratuitously, a plaintiff is entitled under the common law to claim the market or standard costs of such services from a defendant.