148 Cal.App.3d 512 (1983) 196 Cal. Rptr. 82 MADONNA CANAVIN et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. PACIFIC SOUTHWEST AIRLINES, Defendant and Respondent. Docket No. 24595. Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division One. October 28, 1983. *517 COUNSEL Good & Novack and Ned Good for Plaintiffs and Appellants. *518 Kern, Wooley, Maloney, Kern & Wooley and Ralph S. LaMontagne, Jr., for Defendant and Respondent. OPINION WORK, J. Madonna Canavin, individually and as guardian ad litem for her three children, appeals the $750,000 lump-sum jury judgment in a wrongful death action against Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) after a plane crash killed Joseph Reed Canavin, her husband and their father. She contends the trial court erred in: (1) not instructing the jury to award damages for grief and sorrow; (2) improperly considering decedent's income taxes in determining future pecuniary losses; (3) excluding relevant evidence so as to deprive them of a fair trial; (4) improperly denying prejudgment interest; (5) failing to acquire individual jury verdicts for each heir; and (6) engaging in other misconduct. The doctrine of stare decisis and the state of the pleadings in this case force us to conclude the trial court properly refused to instruct on grief and sorrow. We redetermine a portion of our decision in Fox v. Southwest Airlines (1982) 133 Cal. App.3d 565 [184 Cal. Rptr. 87], and hold the Canavins are entitled to prejudgment interest on that portion of the award representing their economic loss before the date of judgment. We hold the jury returning a single, unallocated lump-sum verdict representing the total of the awards for each beneficiary as directed by statute does not deny the individual claimants their rights to jury trial. However, we recommend trial courts require juries to answer special interrogatories stating the amounts they include to compensate each individual claimant, to assist in final apportionment of the award. Reversal is mandated because the trial court allowed the jury to consider evidence of both decedent's gross and net future earnings and to consider present-value discount rates derived from both taxable and nontaxable investments, without providing instructional guidelines. This permitted the jury to use after-tax earnings in computing total lost future support, and reduce that total to present value by the higher discount rate established through use of taxable investments, without any corresponding increase in the award to offset the taxes to be incurred on the investment income. Factual and Procedural Background Dr. Joseph Canavin, age 33, died in a PSA aircrash September 25, 1978, in San Diego. He was a brilliant dynamics engineer with a national reputation in the research field of dynamics and control of large flexible space *519 satellites and a member of the advanced systems department at Draper Laboratories in Massachusetts, working on classified matters of national significance. He is survived by his wife and three young children. The Canavins were married in 1969, and maintained a strong familial unit. Decedent was a loving, caring and devoted husband and a proud, considerate, conscientious and active father …
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