Mandatory future-damages periods on verdict; MCL 600.6305(1)(b); Menard, Inc v City of Escanaba; Reduction of future damages to gross present cash value; MCL 600.6306(1)(e); Labor Council v Detroit; Waiver of unpreserved civil issues; Tolas Gas & Oil Exploration Co v Bach Servs & Mfg, LLC

The court held that plaintiff was not entitled to appellate relief from the trial court’s present-value reduction of a defective lump-sum future noneconomic damages award because she failed to preserve objections to the verdict form and the trial court’s use of actuarial tables. After a two-day slip-and-fall trial, the jury awarded $50,000 in future noneconomic damages on a verdict form that did not specify the years over which the damages would accrue even though the statute requires the trier of fact to find future damages “and the periods over which they will accrue” on an annual basis. Because future noneconomic damages must be reduced to “gross present cash value,” the trial court used actuarial life-expectancy tables to treat the award as spreading over the remainder of plaintiff’s expected life and reduced the $50,000 to $8,696.28. On appeal, the court held plaintiff waived relief by failing to object to the “improper verdict form at trial” and by failing to object when the trial court used the actuarial tables at judgment, explaining that unpreserved civil issues are waived and that plaintiff did not show defendant affirmatively approved the form. The court reasoned the trial court faced a statutory mandate to reduce future damages while lacking the statutorily required accrual periods, and that using actuarial tables was a reasonable solution most likely to approximate the jury’s intent while complying with the reduction requirement. The court declined to create a rule granting a windfall to a party who also failed to correct the defective form and concluded plaintiff was “stuck” with the trial court’s resolution of the parties’ shared error. Affirmed.