City of Indianapolis v. Kollman

79 Ind. 504
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 9052
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 79 Ind. 504 (City of Indianapolis v. Kollman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Indianapolis v. Kollman, 79 Ind. 504 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Morris, C.

— The appellee brought this suit against the City of Indianapolis to recover for nursing and medical attendance upon his wife, and for the loss of her services and society, resulting from injuries received by her through the alleged negligence of the appellant. The complaint consists of two' paragraphs.

■ The first states, that on the 15th day of October, 1878, the wife of the appellee, Elizabeth Kollman, while driving a horse and wagon along one of the alleys of the appellant, which it was bound to keep in repair and safe condition, was, together ■with the horse and wagon, precipitated over a steep declivity on the margin of said alley, constructed by the city and left unguarded, without fault on her part, whereby his said wife was injured, and he was put to great expense in procuring proper nursing, medicine and medical attendance in and about the recovery of his said wife, to his damage $1,000.

The second paragraph is like the first, except that it states that, in consequence of the injury to his wife, he was deprived of her society and lost her services, to his damage, etc.

The appellant answered the complaint by a general denial, and also by a special paragraph, pleaded to the first paragraph. [506]*506-of the complaint, alleging that the appellee and his wife, Elizabeth Kollman, on the-day of-, 1878, filed in the superior court of Marion county, Indiana, their complaint against the appellant, wherein they alleged, in substance and effect, the same matters pleaded in the first paragraph of the appellee’s complaint, claiming particularly that the appellee had laid out and expended for nursing his said wife and for necessary physicians’ bills, in attempting to cure her, the sum of $1,000, and for which, in addition to the •other matters contained in said complaint, the plaintiff demanded judgment; that thereafter, issue being joined on ■said complaint, said cause was tried in said court and the plaintiffs in said action recovered a judgment against the appellant for $1,000 and the costs of the suit, which judgment was afterwards paid by the appellant. Wherefore the matters ¡set forth in said first paragraph of the appellee’s complaint had been adjudicated, etc.

To the second paragraph of the answer, the appellee demurred. The demurrer was overruled, and he replied in two paragraphs, the first being the general denial.

The second paragraph of the reply admitted that the appellee and his wife had filed their complaint as stated in the second paragraph of the answer, and that issue had been joined and a judgment recovered as stated in said answer, and that the same was afterwards paid by the appellant, but it averred that on the trial of said'issue the plaintiffs in said action offered to prove the expenses incurred by the appellee in nursing his said wife and the reasonable physicians’ bill in curing her, but that, upon the objection of the appellant that -said matters were not properly pleaded, the court refused to permit the plaintiffs in said action to offer any proof as to such expenses, etc.

The issues being joined, the cause was submitted to a jury for trial, who returned a general verdict for the appellee, together with the following answers to the following interrogatories asked by the appellee:

[507]*507“ 1. Were the matters sued for in this action sued for in -the suit number 23,244, in this court, of Kollman v. The City of Indianapolis? Ans. No.
“ 2; Was not the suit number 23,244, of Henry Kollman v. The City of Indianapolis, for the horse and wagon and produce alone? Ans. Yes.”

And also the following answers to the following interrogatories submitted to the jury by the appellant:

“ 1. Did not the matters sued for in cause number 23,244 of the superior court, in which Henry Kollman was plaintiff and the City of Indianapolis defendant, grow out of the same accident on account of which the plaintiff seeks to recover in this action? Ans. Yes.
“ 2. Was not the accident to the plaintiff’s wife, by reason of which he seeks to recover in this action, caused at the same time that the plaintiff’s horse, wagon and produce were injured, and for which he sued and recovered judgment against the city of Indianapolis for $60, in cause number 23,244 of the superior court of Marion county, Indiana, in which Henry Kollman was plaintiff and the City of Indianapolis was defendant? Ans. Yes.”

The record then proceeds as follows: “ Comes now the defendant, the City of Indianapolis, by her counsel, and files her motion for a new trial of this cause, in the words and figures following, viz.: (hereafter inserted in the bill of exceptions; see page 278, line 1, of this transcript.)

“The defendant, by counsel, also files her motion for judgment on the special findings of the jury herein, in the words and' figures following, viz.: (inserted hereafter in the bill of exceptions; see page-line-of this transcript.)”

These motions were overruled by the court, and judgment Tendered for the appellees.

The appellant appealed to the general term of said court, .assigning errors as follows:

1. Because the complaint in said cause does not state facts sufficient to constitute a good cause of action.

[508]*5082. The court at special term erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for a new trial.

3. The court at special term erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for judgment on the special findings of the jury, notwithstanding the general verdict in favor of the appellee, which was excepted to at the time.

The court in general term affirmed the judgment rendered at the special term. The error assigned here is the affirmance of the judgment rendered at the special term by the court in general term.

As the appellant does not question in argument the sufficiency of the complaint, its defects, if any, must be considered as waived. The counsel for the appellant say: “The principal and perhaps the only question of importance in the record is the question of former adjudication of the matters set forth in this action. This question is raised, 1st, by the motion for a new trial; 2d, by a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto.”

The motion for a new trial, as well as the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, is found in what purports to be a bill of exceptions and a part of the record, and neither is found in any other part of the record.

It appears that final judgment was rendered at special term upon the verdict of the jury at the November term, 1879, and on the 22d day of November. The bill of exceptions appears to have been filed on the 19th day of December, 1879, that being the December term of said court. At the conclusion of the bill of exceptions is this statement: “And thirty days time was given the defendant in which to prepare and file her bill of exceptions.”

The above is the only statement to be found in the record as to the giving of time by the court to prepare and file a bill of exceptions. Unless time was given for that purpose, the bill of exceptions in this case is unauthorized. If time was given, it must, in the very nature of things, have been given by the court before the .preparation of the bill of exceptions, and, by [509]

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Bluebook (online)
79 Ind. 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-indianapolis-v-kollman-ind-1881.