Cheek v. JORDAN, D/B/A JORDAN FUNERAL HOME

169 N.E.2d 608, 131 Ind. App. 127, 1960 Ind. App. LEXIS 163
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 1960
Docket19,351
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 169 N.E.2d 608 (Cheek v. JORDAN, D/B/A JORDAN FUNERAL HOME) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cheek v. JORDAN, D/B/A JORDAN FUNERAL HOME, 169 N.E.2d 608, 131 Ind. App. 127, 1960 Ind. App. LEXIS 163 (Ind. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

Kelley, J.

Appellee Jordan was engaged by appellant’s husband to convey appellant home from a hospital where she had undergone surgery. Appellant was brought home on a hospital cart in appellee’s (Jordan Funeral Home) ambulance. It became necessary to take her upstairs to her bedroom. The stairway leading to said bedroom was narrow and contained a sharp right-angle turn which prevented the use of the hospital cart as a means of conveyance up the stairway. A dining room chair was selected for the purpose of carrying appellant up the stairway. The latter seated hearself in the chair and when appellee, Marqua, and his helper lifted it up, the chair broke at the top of the back and appellant fell approximately two to two and one-half feet to the floor. Appellant instituted this action for damages for her alleged personal injuries allegedly occasioned by the negligence of appellees.

Appellant’s complaint counted upon four alleged acts of negligence, two of which the court withdrew from consideration by the jury upon motion of appellees. In substance the two remaining grounds of negligence alleged upon were that appellees “improperly attempted” to carry appellant upstairs “in that they attempted to lift the chair by means of holding to the top of the back of the chair and the front legs” when they knew or *132 should have known that the chair was not designed for the purpose and was unsafe; (2) that appellees “failed and neglected to inspect the aforesaid chair to ascertain whether or not it was so constructed and in such condition as to permit a safe means of conveyance” of appellant to her bedroom.

The jury returned its verdict for appellees and consistent judgment followed. Appellant’s motion for a new trial, consisting of twenty-three specifications of asserted error, was overruled. Specifications numbered 1, 2, 6, 8, 15,18 and 23 of the motion for new trial are not argued by appellant and are therefore deemed waived. The remaining specifications assert error in the giving of certain of appellees’ instructions; the refusal to give certain appellant’s tendered instructions; the withdrawal from the jury of the ground of negligence alleged in subparagraph (c) of rhetorical paragraph 7 of the amended complaint; the overruling by the court of objections made by appellant to certain questions put to several witnesses on direct examination; and the sustaining by the court of a motion by appellees to strike a remark of appellant’s counsel in connection with an objection to a question put on direct examination of a witness.

We observe in passing that the specifications in the new trial motion relating to the evidentiary matters are inadequately stated to present any question concerning the same. The error of the court, if any, jies in the admission or rejection of evidence and the motion for a new trial, to be in proper form, should assert such as the ground of error. Harvey, etc. v. Johnson School Twp., etc. (1954), 124 Ind. App. 602, 117 N. E. 2d 279. Appellant’s motion, in each instance, contained practically the same method of statement, namely: “There was error of law occurring at the trial *133 in that on direct examination (cross-examination was used in specification 7) of (here the name of the witness is given) the following took place and the following erroneous rulings were made:.” Then follows a question or series of questions, an objection, a ruling by the court, and an answer. Now, it is true that the erroneous admission or exclusion of evidence is a ground for new trial under the Eighth cause of §2-2401, Burns’ 1946 Replacement, but it is not proper to merely specify such ground in general terms. It has been held that a specification or ground of “errors of law occurring at the trial” does not present the erroneous admission of testimony. Oiler v. Bodkey (1861), 17 Ind. 600. In the present motion the specification says only as “an error of law occurring at the trial” that “the following took place” and “the following erroneous ruling was made.” Just what “error of law” or “erroneous ruling” does appellant complain about? Is it the wrongful admission of evidence or the improper overruling of an objection to the question or the erroneous overruling of a motion to strike the answer or the erroneous sustaining of a motion to strike certain remarks of counsel from the record ?

As illustrative of the difficulty we encounter when the statement of the new trial motion is as given above, we call attention to specification No. 9 of the new trial motion. It is there said that there was “error of law occurring at the trial” and “the following erroneous rulings were made.” Then follows a question; a request to ask preliminary questions; granting of the request; a series of apparently preliminary questions and answers; a stated objection to the question for three given reasons; the overruling of the objection; the answer of the witness; a motion to strike the answer; overruling of the motion to strike; another question; statement of *134 counsel “The same objection;” overruling of the objection; answer of the witness; a motion to strike the answer; overruling of motion to strike; another question pertaining to a designated Exhibit No. 3 the nature of which is not shown; statement of counsel “Same objection”; overruling of the objection; answer of the witness; another question; statement of counsel “Same objection”; overruling of objection; answer of the witness; motion to strike the answer; overruling of the motion to strike. Now, what particular error of law or erroneous ruling are we to look for? The generality of the specification in appellant’s new trial motion defeats its own purpose and leaves us in a vacuity.

Appellant says that specifications numbered 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 22 of her motion for a new trial “all deal with the admissibility of evidence of general custom and practice in the trade” and are all considered under one argument. She then poses one question as illustrative of all. That question is quoted by appellant as follows:

“Particularly in November of 1955, what was the general accepted custom and method of tranporting a patient from an ambulance cot up the stairway where the stairway was of such dimensions as not to be able to get the cot up with the patient on it?”

The answer, admitted over appellant’s objection, was: “The general practice was with a chair.”

Although we have struggled long and earnestly to apprehend the reasons or grounds upon which appellant predicates her contention that the evidence was inadmissible, we have despaired of successful accomplishment. It appears to us that while appellant concedes that “upon the issues of negligence or contributory negligence, evidence of the ordinary practice or of uniform custom, if any, of persons in the *135 performance under similar circumstances of acts like those which are alleged to have been done negligently is generally competent evidence,” yet, she attempts to evade the rule by asserting that it is subject to “certain qualifications,” four of which she sets out as being declared in “the McCullough” case. The citation or volume reference to said case is not given and we do not know what case was intended by the reference.

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Bluebook (online)
169 N.E.2d 608, 131 Ind. App. 127, 1960 Ind. App. LEXIS 163, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cheek-v-jordan-dba-jordan-funeral-home-indctapp-1960.