CACI No. 3900. Introduction to Tort Damages - Liability Contested
Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (2024 edition)
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3900.Introduction to Tort Damages - Liability Contested
If you decide that [name of plaintiff] has proved [his/her/nonbinary
pronoun] claim against [name of defendant], you also must decide how
much money will reasonably compensate [name of plaintiff] for the harm.
This compensation is called “damages.”
The amount of damages must include an award for each item of harm
that was caused by [name of defendant]’s wrongful conduct, even if the
particular harm could not have been anticipated.
[Name of plaintiff] does not have to prove the exact amount of damages
that will provide reasonable compensation for the harm. However, you
must not speculate or guess in awarding damages.
[The following are the specific items of damages claimed by [name of
plaintiff]:]
[Insert applicable instructions on items of damage.]
New September 2003
Directions for Use
Read last bracketed sentence and insert instructions on items of damages here only
if CACI No. 3902, Economic and Noneconomic Damages, is not being read. If
CACI No. 3902 is not used, this instruction should be followed by applicable
instructions (see CACI Nos. 3903A through 3903N, and 3905A) concerning the
items of damage claimed by the plaintiff. These instructions should be inserted into
this instruction as sequentially numbered items.
Sources and Authority
• Measure of Tort Damages. Civil Code section 3333.
• Recovery of Damages Generally. Civil Code section 3281.
• Recovery of Future Damages. Civil Code section 3283.
• Damages Must Be Reasonable. Civil Code section 3359.
• “ ‘Damages’ are monetary compensation awarded to parties who suffer detriment
for the unlawful act or omission of another; they are assessed by a court against
wrongdoers for the commission of a legal wrong of a private nature.” (Meister v.
Mensinger (2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 381, 396 [178 Cal.Rptr.3d 604].)
• Under Civil Code section 3333 “[t]ort damages are awarded to compensate a
plaintiff for all of the damages suffered as a legal result of the defendant’s
wrongful conduct.” (North American Chemical Co. v. Superior Court (1997) 59
Cal.App.4th 764, 786 [69 Cal.Rptr.2d 466], italics omitted.)
• “Whatever its measure in a given case, it is fundamental that ‘damages which
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are speculative, remote, imaginary, contingent, or merely possible cannot serve
as a legal basis for recovery.’ However, recovery is allowed if claimed benefits
are reasonably certain to have been realized but for the wrongful act of the
opposing party.” (Piscitelli v. Friedenberg (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 953, 989 [105
Cal.Rptr.2d 88], internal citations omitted.)
• “In general, one who has been tortiously injured is entitled to be compensated
for the harm and the injured party must establish ‘by proof the extent of the
harm and the amount of money representing adequate compensation with as
much certainty as the nature of the tort and the circumstances permit.’ However,
‘[t]here is no general requirement that the injured person should prove with like
definiteness the extent of the harm that he has suffered as a result of the
tortfeasor’s conduct. It is desirable that responsibility for harm should not be
imposed until it has been proved with reasonable certainty that the harm resulted
from the wrongful conduct of the person charged. It is desirable, also, that there
be definiteness of proof of the amount of damage as far as is reasonably
possible. It is even more desirable, however, that an injured person not be
deprived of substantial compensation merely because he cannot prove with
complete certainty the extent of harm he has suffered.’ ” (Clemente v. State of
California (1985) 40 Cal.3d 202, 219 [219 Cal.Rptr. 445, 707 P.2d 818], internal
citations omitted.)
• “ ‘Where the fact of damages is certain, the amount of damages need not be
calculated with absolute certainty.’ ‘The law requires only that some reasonable
basis of computation of damages be used, and the damages may be computed
even if the result reached is an approximation. . . . .’ ” (Meister,supra, 230
Cal.App.4th at pp. 396-397, original italics, internal citation omitted.)
• “If plaintiff’s inability to prove his damages with certainty is due to defendant’s
actions, the law does not generally require such proof.” (Clemente, supra, 40
Cal.3d at p. 219, internal citations omitted.)
• “While a defendant is liable for all the damage that his tortuous act proximately
causes to the plaintiff, regardless of whether or not it could have been
anticipated, nevertheless a proximate causal connection must still exist between
the damage sustained by the plaintiff and the defendant’s wrongful act or
omission, and the detriment inflicted on the plaintiff must still be the natural and
probable result of the defendant’s conduct.” (Chaparkas v. Webb (1960) 178
Cal.App.2d 257, 260 [2 Cal.Rptr. 879], internal citations omitted.)
• “The issue here is whether [defendant] - separate from other legal and practical
reasons it had to prevent injury of any kind to the public - had a tort duty to
guard against negligently causing what we and others have called ‘purely
economic loss[es].’ We use that term as a shorthand for ‘pecuniary or
commercial loss that does not arise from actionable physical, emotional or
reputational injury to persons or physical injury to property.’ And although
[defendant] of course had a tort duty to guard against the latter kinds of injury,
we conclude it had no tort duty to guard against purely economic losses.”
(Southern California Gas Leak Cases (2019) 7 Cal.5th 391, 398 [247
DAMAGES CACI No. 3900
815
Cal.Rptr.3d 632, 441 P.3d 881], internal citations omitted.)
Secondary Sources
6 Witkin, Summary of California Law (11th ed. 2017) Torts, §§ 1715-1719,
1723-1726
California Tort Damages (Cont.Ed.Bar) Bodily Injury, §§ 1.2-1.6
4 Levy et al., California Torts, Ch. 50, Damages, § 50.02 (Matthew Bender)
15 California Forms of Pleading and Practice, Ch. 177, Damages, § 177.41
(Matthew Bender)
California Civil Practice: Torts § 5:1 (Thomson Reuters)
CACI No. 3900 DAMAGES
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© Judicial Council of California.
