What is the test for damages in a personal injury action?

damages was, in context, less a plea for punitive damages than a plea for a verdict of liability. The "message" simply was that the City should be held liable for failing to repair noticeable dangerous conditions. This certainly was not a case such as Stafford v. United Farm Workers (1983) 33 Cal.3d 319, 188 Cal.Rptr. 600, 656 P.2d 564, cited by the City, where an erroneous evidentiary ruling allowed the plaintiff to put irrelevant but inflammatory evidence before the jury that the defendant was subject to a temporary restraining order, and then to argue that the jury should "send a message" to the defendant that restraining orders cannot be violated with impunity. And although it may have been improper to refer to the jurors' families and children, there is no likelihood that these references had any effect on the verdict.

The trial court had no discretion to grant a new trial in the absence of prejudicial error. {Sherman v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 1152, 1161, 79 Cal.Rptr.2d 641.) As any error here was harmless, the trial court's ruling was correct.

A plaintiff in a personal injury action is entitled to recover from the defendant tortfeasor, the reasonable value of medical services rendered to the plaintiff, including the amount paid by a collateral source, such as an insurer. As medical expenses fall into the category of economic damages, they represent actual pecuniary loss caused by the defendant's wrong. (Civ.Code, 1431.2, subd. (b)(1); Hanif v. Housing Authority (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 635, 641, 246 Cal.Rptr. 192.) "Thus, when the evidence shows a sum certain to have been paid or incurred for past medical care and services, whether by the plaintiff or by an independent source, that sum certain is the most the plaintiff may recover for that care despite the fact that it may have been less than the prevailing market rate." (Hanif v. Housing Authority, supra, 200 Cal.App.3d at p. 641, 246 Cal.Rptr. 192.)