613 P.2d 412 | Nev. | 1980
OPINION
Danny and Kenneth Bryan, two pedestrians, were injured by respondent Carl Allen’s negligent operation of an automobile.
Under Nevada’s no-fault system, an injured party was not entitled to multiple recovery for the same loss. Cooke v. Safeco Ins. Co., 94 Nev. 745, 587 P.2d 1324 (1978); Travelers Insurance Co. v. Lopez, 93 Nev. 463, 567 P.2d 471 (1977). Indeed, the Legislature specifically abolished tort liability with respect to injuries compensated by the payment of basic reparation benefits. NRS 698.280(1)(h).
Here, it is undisputed that appellants received basic reparation benefits for their economic losses. It is also undisputed that the jury returned its general verdict after having been instructed on the computation of damages for both economic and noneconomic detriment and after having received evidence of economic loss.
A jury verdict is presumptively valid; absent a showing in the record, this Court will not read error into a general verdict. J.C. Penney Co. v. Gravelle, 62 Nev. 439, 455, 155 P.2d 477, 484 (1944). Appellants have not met their burden, either in the court below or on appeal, of establishing that their tort recovery did not include previously paid benefits. Easom v. Farmers Ins. Co., Inc., 560 P.2d 117 (Kan. 1977). The district court therefore properly reduced appellants’ jury award. By so doing, the court did not encroach upon the province of the jury. Sec Van Fleet v. O’Neil, 44 Nev. 216, 233-34, 192 P.384, 390 (1920). Rather, the court merely insured that appellants could not recover in a tort action what the Legislature had, by enacting NRS 698.280, specifically prohibited them from recovering.