How is disposable income calculated in the context of a spouse’s death?

The problem of determining disposable income in a situation where both the survivor and the deceased spouse are gainfully employed and their incomes go into a family pool that supports their lifestyle is one that has not often been considered by the courts. This situation will, because of the changes in our economic and societal norms, occur with increasing frequency in the future. It was recognized and commented upon by Devlin J. in Burgess v. Florence Nightingale Hospital for Gentlewomen (1955) 1 Q.B. 349. In that case the husband and wife were dancing partners and earned their income jointly. The wife died as the result of the negligence of a surgeon. The husband claimed damages under the Fatal Accidents Act for, inter alia, the loss of the wife’s contribution to their joint living expenses. Devlin J. said at page 562: “No doubt. 50 or 100 years ago, the presumption was that the husband paid all the joint living expenses, and anything that the wife earned was a sort of pin money, which she could keep for herself; but I do not think that that fits the facts of modern married life, and I do not think that it fits the case of the very sensible and ordinary way in which the married couple in this case were in fact carrying on their married life. They were both earning equally, and they both contributed equally, and I think that the wife was just as much contributing to the joint living expenses by the way in which they were discharged, as she would have been if she had Kept the money herself and then handed it over to the husband. No case has been cited to me where what one might call mutual dependence of this sort has been made the subject of a claim under the Fatal Accidents Act, but I see no difficulty about it in principle. It seems to me that when a husband and a wife, either with separate incomes or with a joint income to which they are both beneficially entitled, are living together and sharing their expenses, and in consequence of that fact their joint living expenses are less than twice the expenses of each one living separately, then each, by the fact of the sharing, is conferring a benefit on the other. I think that such a mutual benefit clearly arises from the relationship by virtue of which they are living together, namely, the relationship of husband and wife, and accordingly comes within the Fatal Accidents Act.”