§ 8.01-52.Amount of damages.

Section 8.01-52 governs what a jury, or a judge trying the case without a jury, may award in a wrongful death action brought under § 8.01-50. The verdict or judgment may include damages the factfinder deems fair and just, but it must include, without being limited to, five specific categories: sorrow, mental anguish, and solace — which can account for the loss of the decedent’s society, companionship, comfort, guidance, and advice; compensation for the reasonably expected loss of the decedent’s income and of the services, protection, care, and assistance the decedent would have provided; expenses for the decedent’s care, treatment, and hospitalization tied to the fatal injury; reasonable funeral expenses; and punitive damages, available for willful or wanton conduct or for recklessness that shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others.

The statute requires the jury or court to state separately the amounts awarded for medical and hospitalization expenses, funeral expenses, and punitive damages. The medical and funeral expense categories must then be apportioned among the creditors who rendered those services, according to their respective interests — the money is meant to reach the providers owed, not pass through as a lump sum. Competent expert testimony is admissible to help prove the loss-of-income-and-services category.

Finally, the statute leaves the apportionment of the action’s costs to the court’s judgment, rather than fixing a formula for how costs are divided.