N.C.P.I.—Civil 806.81

"What amount of presumed damages is the plaintiff entitled to

recover?"

You will consider this issue only if you have answered Issue

Number (state issue number) "Yes" in favor of the plaintiff.

If you have answered Issue Number (state issue number) "Yes," the

plaintiff is entitled to be awarded compensation for presumed damages

even without proof of actual damages. Presumed damages are damages

that are assumed, without proof, to have occurred to the plaintiff as a

result of the publication by the defendant of the [libelous] [slanderous]

statement.2 Presumed damages include matters such as loss of

reputation or standing in the community, mental or physical pain and

suffering, inconvenience, or loss of enjoyment which cannot be

definitively measured in monetary terms.3

Presumed damages arise by inference of law and are not required

to be specifically proved by evidence.4 This means you need not have

proof that the plaintiff suffered loss of reputation or standing in the

community, mental or physical pain and suffering, inconvenience or loss

of enjoyment in order to award the plaintiff damages for such harm

because such harm is presumed by the law when a defendant publishes a

[libelous] [slanderous] statement with the knowledge that it is false or

with reckless disregard of whether it is false.5

The determination of the amount of presumed damages is not a

task which can be completed with mathematical precision6 and is one

which unavoidably includes an element of speculation. The amount of

presumed damages is an estimate, however rough, of the probable extent

of actual harm, in the form of loss of reputation or standing in the

community, mental or physical pain and suffering, and inconvenience or

loss of enjoyment which the plaintiff has suffered or will suffer in the

future as a result of the defendant's publication of the [libelous]

[slanderous] statement.7 However, any amount you allow as future

damages must be reduced to its present value, because a sum received

now is equal to a larger sum received in the future.

You may award the plaintiff presumed damages, for example, in a

nominal amount, which is a trivial amount such as one dollar, that shows

that the plaintiff is entitled to recover from the defendant, without

further proof from the plaintiff. You may also, in the exercise of your

good judgment and common sense,8 award the plaintiff presumed

damages in an amount that will compensate the plaintiff, as far as

money can do, for injury that you find is a direct and natural

consequence9 of the [libel] [slander] of the plaintiff by the defendant.

As to this issue, I instruct you that you are to base your decision

on the rules of law with respect to presumed damages that I have given

you and that you are not required to accept the amount of damages

suggested by the parties or their attorneys. You should remember that

you are not seeking to punish either party, and you are not awarding or

withholding anything on the basis of sympathy or pity.

Finally as to this issue, if you have answered Issue Number (state

issue number) "Yes" in favor of the plaintiff, then you will answer this

issue by writing in the blank space provided that amount of presumed

damages which you have determined to award the plaintiff under the

instructions I have given you.