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In wrongful death actions, defendant should certainly get a nice credit for the joy which suffuses the about-to-be deceased, when he realizes that his family will be getting a nice chunk of money without his having to work for it.

Charles Mitchell wrote:

Members of both the ODG and the RDG will find things to interest them in O'Brien v. Independent Assessor [2007] UKHL 10, where the majority hold that when assessing damages for loss of earnings by a claimant who has been wrongfully imprisoned, a deduction should be made to reflect the fact that he has received a benefit from the prison service in the shape of food and lodging.

Lord Rodger dissents, invoking the principle in 'lost years' cases that when calculating damages for lost earnings the courts should not concern themselves with what claimants would have spent their earnings on, and asserting that: 'justice, reasonableness and public policy surely dictate that no allowance should be made for so-called savings which the appellants were supposedly making while they were actually enduring the appalling wrong for which they are to be compensated.'