Wrongful-death lawsuit draws attention for the size of its award

A St. Louis County jury ruled the family of a man killed in a 2004 car accident should get more than $720,000.

By Margaret Zack
Staff Writer   

The insurance company offered the Rafinski family of Hibbing, Minn., $22,500 in compensation after one member was killed in a car accident. But a St. Louis County jury had other ideas.

The jury this week awarded the family more than $720,000 for losing its relationship with Ryan Rafinski, a 27-year-old who had moved into his father's home about six months before the accident, was underinsured and didn't contribute financially to the family.

While the verdict isn't a precedent, "That's a lot of money in a wrongful-death case," said William Mitchell College of Law Prof. Michael Steenson.

In April 2004 Rafinski was a passenger in a car in which the driver lost control and went off the road. His family sued the Western National Mutual Insurance Co. - which insured Rafinski's father, John - for the loss of Ryan Rafinski's "advice, comfort, assistance and protection," as well as for funeral expenses.

John Rafinski's attorney, Paul Schweiger, said the company offered the family $22,500 to settle. An attorney for the insurer could not be reached for comment.

At trial, the insurer claimed that Ryan Rafinski was not living with his father at the time of the accident and that John Rafinski had failed to notify Western National his son was living with him.

Schweiger said five years before Ryan was killed, the insurance company had told John Rafinski that it would not continue to insure him as long as Ryan was living with him. The son had a driving record with several violations and two DWI convictions.

The jury found that Ryan Rafinski was a resident of his father's household and that John Rafinski made no misrepresentations to the insurance company.

It awarded John Rafinski, as trustee for his son's next of kin, $120,000 for past damages, $600,000 for future damages and about $11,000 for funeral expenses.

"This is a very large verdict, but Minnesota courts have always said that putting a value on the loss of a child is so difficult that it is peculiarly a task for the jury to undertake," said University of St. Thomas Law School Prof. Robert Vischer.

Such a verdict, he said, is tough to overturn without a good reason. That Ryan Rafinski was an adult child not contributing to the household "might come close," Vischer said.

"This is an amorphous area. How much is a child's advice, comfort, assistance and protection worth? That's why the question is left to the jury," he said.

Margaret Zack - 612-673-4435