Boland v. Jando

395 S.W.2d 206, 1965 Mo. LEXIS 673
Supreme Court of Missouri·Decided November 8, 1965·No. 51534·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

*207 HIGGINS, Commissioner.

John A. Boland sued Ferenc Jando for $35,000 damages for personal injury and injury to his automobile alleged to arise from a rear-end collision between their automobiles. A jury returned a verdict for plaintiff, Boland, for $500 personal injuries and $200 property damage, and he has appealed on the ground, inter alia, that by reason of inadequacy of the verdict he is entitled to a new trial. The amount in dispute is the difference between the $35,-000 claimed and the $700 received, and jurisdiction is thus in this court. Mo.Const., Art. V, § 3, V.A.M.S.; Section 477.040 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.; Davidson v. Schneider, Mo., 349 S.W.2d 908, 909 [1].

Plaintiff, aged 50, a graduate electrical engineer, was engaged in the television and radio repair business. At 8:55 a. m., March 12, 1964, he was traveling southbound on Grand Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, in his 1963 Dodge Dart station wagon. He stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Lierman Avenue and, while stationary, he was struck at the rear by a 1953 Chevrolet operated by defendant. The impact knocked plaintiff’s hat from his head and caused his head to strike the windshield and to receive “a slight scratch.” Repairs to the Dodge cost $188.25 and to the Chevrolet, $10. Defendant was not injured. Later on the day of the collision, plaintiff went to Dr. Roy E. Gladney, a chiropractor, who took X rays of plaintiff’s back and spine and he testified that his X rays and those in the hospital record showed that plaintiff had a fracture of the third cervical vertebra. Defendant’s examiner, Dr. Louis A. Reuter, disputed this claim by stating that none of the X rays suggested a possibility or probability of such a fracture. Plaintiff testified that he subsequently developed dizzy spells, and he also testified that he had a broken cervical vertebra. Four or five days after the collision he was examined by Drs. Robert Potashnik and Hugh R. Waters who sent him to Barnes Hospital for treatment by Dr. Herbert E. Rosenbaum. He was at the hospital March 20 through March 24,1964, where additional X rays were taken. Plaintiff’s medical expenses amounted to $464.50.

In 1955 plaintiff had a position with the Federal Aviation Authority at an annual salary of $9,000. He had been notified of a promotion to a position at an annual salary of $12,000 which he never enjoyed because of an electrical shock injury which incapacitated him for about three years. Subsequently, he went into television and radio repair and the transcript shows an agreement that plaintiff paid federal income tax on $1,372.67 in 1963; that the 1962 return did not show any income from the repair business, and that there was no- record of plaintiff’s earnings in January, February, March, and April, 1964, in the company books.

Appellant’s first contention is that the court erred in excluding an- X-ray interpretation contained in the hospital record. The excluded interpretation was: “There is a small spur-like projection off the anterior inferior surface of the body of C3 which could be a small chip fracture.” Defendant objected to reading it into evidence on the ground it was speculative and the court excluded the interpretation because “ ‘could be’ is not with enough definiteness to make it admissible in evidence.”

Qualification of a hospital record under the Uniform Business Records Aet, Sections 490.660 to 490.690, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., does not necessarily make all parts of the record automatically admissible; objectionable parts may be excluded if proper specific objection is made, Allen v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 365 Mo. 677, 285 S.W.2d 663, 666 [4]; and it would be proper to exclude an X-ray interpretation couched in terms of “could be a small chip fracture,” upon objection that such interpretation was speculative, LaMantia v. Bobmeyer, Mo.App., 382 S.W.2d 455, 462 [15]. Even if the exclusion were thought to be erroneous, there would be no prejudice here because the evidence sought from the hospital record was given directly by plaintiff *208 when he was permitted to testify that he had a broken cervical vertebra and by plaintiff’s Dr. Gladney who stated that he examined the X rays in question and that they showed a fracture of the third cervical vertebra. Boring v. Kansas City Life Insurance Co., Mo., 274 S.W.2d 233, 239 [7]; Drummond v. Hartford Fire Insurance Co., Mo.App., 343 S.W.2d 84, 89.

Appellant’s principal contention is that the verdict is grossly inadequate, claiming that the $500 recovery for personal injuries compensated him for medical expense only and did not compensate him for his injuries, loss of time and loss of earnings. He does not quarrel with the $200 recovery for property damage. In support of his contention, appellant cites Breland v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio R. Co., Mo., 325 S.W.2d 9, 16 [8], to the effect that “a reasonable uniformity of amounts of verdicts and judgments must be maintained,” and urges that he should have a new trial because of inadequacy of the verdict.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Boland v. Jando, 395 S.W.2d 206, 1965 Mo. LEXIS 673 (Mo. 1965).

395 S.W.2d 206 (Boland v. Jando) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Sigrist by and Through Sigrist v. Clarke
935 S.W.2d 350 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1996)
Asbridge v. General Motors Corp.
797 S.W.2d 775 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)
State v. Thrasher
654 S.W.2d 142 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Graham
641 S.W.2d 102 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1982)
Workes v. Embassy Food Enterprises, Inc.
592 S.W.2d 864 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1979)
Sampson v. Missouri Pacific Railroad
560 S.W.2d 573 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1978)
LeClaire v. Hovey
237 N.W.2d 895 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1976)
Homeyer v. Wyandotte Chemical Corporation
421 S.W.2d 306 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1967)
Steele v. Yacovelli
419 S.W.2d 477 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1967)
Boland v. Jando
414 S.W.2d 560 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1967)