Bibbs v. Toyota Motor Corporation

Summary

The court held that a decedent's full settlement of a personal injury action limits damages recoverable in a later wrongful death action because the wrongful death claim is derivative and cannot produce a double recovery. Damages previously recovered or recoverable for the decedent's permanent disability, including economic losses and overlapping non-economic losses, cannot be recovered again, but the court declined to hold as a matter of law that no additional non-economic damages remain when the decedent lived in a permanent coma. The certified questions were answered accordingly, with the remaining valuation issue left for the district court.