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Shortly after I was married, I was working in my father’s office in Maryland when I was called for jury duty. This wasn’t at the county level, but in federal district court. It was a civil case involving an Amtrak conductor in his forties who was injured in a slip and fall accident. At the tender age of 25, I was tasked, as foreman of the jury, with helping arrive at the appropriate level of the award.
While all members of the jury wanted the plaintiff to prevail, the overall sentiment was expressed by a juror who said he wanted to be fair, but that we weren’t required to make the individual rich. The plaintiff didn’t know it, but he was fortunate that I was foreman, because ultimately the award was much closer to the amount suggested by the plaintiff than that suggested by the defense. All understood clearly the need for the defendant, Amtrak, to pay for outstanding medical expenses. More difficult to grasp was that the injury had permanently reduced this man’s future earnings. In other words, his “value” in the workplace had declined and would likely never recover.
Fortunately, this concept is found in this week’s portion, Mishpatim, and its exposition in the Talmud. In Exodus 21:18-19, we read: “When [two] parties quarrel and one strikes the other with stone or fist, and the victim does not die but has to take to bed, and subsequently that victim then rises and walks outdoors upon a staff, the assailant shall go unpunished—except for paying for the idleness and the cure.” This is clarified in tractate Bava Kamma (84):
Rav Pappa said in the name of Rava that concerning one who was injured by another, who must pay for damage, the verse states: “If he rises again, and walks outside upon his staff, then he that struck him shall be absolved; only he shall pay for his loss of livelihood, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed” (Exodus 21:19), which teaches that one who injures another must pay compensation for medical costs even in a case where he pays compensation for damage.
In fact, Talmudic jurisprudence recognizes five categories of compensation: medical expenses, loss of future “value” as a laborer, loss of income, pain and suffering, and shame. The plaintiff here didn’t suffer from shame, per se; he walked with a cane but had no visible injury. But he did miss months of work from his slip and fall event, pile up considerable medical bills, have to remove himself from consideration for railroad jobs which he could no longer perform, and experience pain.
People sometimes claim that learning Talmud isn’t practical. For one man it definitely was, even if he never becomes aware of it.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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