CACI 3903E Loss of Ability to Provide Household Services (Economic Damage)

California Civil Jury Instructions CACI

3903E Loss of Ability to Provide Household Services (Economic Damage)


[Insert number, e.g., “5.”] The loss of [name of plaintiff]’s ability to provide household services.

To recover damages for the loss of the ability to provide household services, [name of plaintiff] must prove the reasonable value of the services [he/she/nonbinary pronoun] would have been reasonably certain to provide to [his/her/nonbinary pronoun] household if the injury had not occurred.


Sources and Authority

“The first category consists of the reasonable value of nursing and other services that Decedent would have provided to his wife prior to his death, but was unable to provide due to his illness (replacement care). Again, [defendant] does not contest the recoverability of such damages here. Nor did it below. Such damages are recoverable. ‘Generally, household services damages represent the detriment suffered when injury prevents a person from contributing some or all of his or her customary services to the family unit.’ ” (Williams v. The Pep Boys Manny Moe & Jack of California (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 225, 238 [238 Cal.Rptr.3d 809] [citing this instruction].)

“The justification for awarding this type of damage as part of the loss of future earnings award is that the plaintiff should be compensated for the value of the services he would have performed during the lost years which, because of the injury, will now have to be performed by someone else.” (Overly v. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc. (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 164, 171, fn. 5 [87 Cal.Rptr.2d 626], internal citation omitted.)

“ ‘To entitle a plaintiff to recover present damages for apprehended future consequences, there must be evidence to show such a degree of probability of their occurring as amounts to a reasonable certainty that they will result from the original injury.’ ” (Bellman v. San Francisco High School Dist. (1938) 11 Cal.2d 576, 588 [81 P.2d 894], internal citation omitted.)


Secondary Sources

California Tort Damages (Cont.Ed.Bar) Bodily Injury, §§ 1.64–1.66
15 California Forms of Pleading and Practice, Ch. 177, Damages (Matthew Bender)
6 California Points and Authorities, Ch. 64, Damages: Tort (Matthew Bender)