City of Nashville v. Fox

6 Tenn. App. 653, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 195
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 11, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 6 Tenn. App. 653 (City of Nashville v. Fox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Nashville v. Fox, 6 Tenn. App. 653, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 195 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

DEWITT, J.

On November 26, 1924, hjrs. Mayme Fox was seriously injured by a fall in the market house in the City of Nashville. She brought suit against the City of Nashville, a municipal corporation, for damages for the personal injuries sustained *655 iby her, and her husband John T. Fox also brought suit against the City of Nashville for loss of services of his wife and expenses incurred by him as the result of the personal injuries to his wife. These suits were based upon alleged negligence of the city in maintaining its market house in a defective condition, in that the concrete floor contained a hole, which was known to the city or should have been known to it by the exercise of reasonable care, and not known to Mrs. Fox, nor discoverable by her in the exercise of ordinary care; in which hole or depression she stepped while walking when she was engaged in making some purchases from merchants in said market house. It was averred in the declaration that the City of Nashville was authorized and empowered under its charter to establish and maintain a market house, and that in pursuance thereof said city leased to various persons spaces in the market house to the end that such occupants might deal with the general public, that it was the duty of the City of Nashville, in view of said facts and circumstances, to use ordinary and reasonable care to provide safe passages or walkways in the market house to be used by any and all persons who desired to transact business with the occupants thereof; and that it had violated said duty in allowing said hole to exist in the floor. The city interposed a plea of not guilty to each declaration. The suits were twice tried together. On the first trial the jury awarded a verdict for $800 to Mrs. Fox and a verdict of $400 to her husband. Each of the plaintiffs moved for a new trial on the single ground that the damages awarded were inadequate on the facts of the case, so inadequate as to evince passion, prejudice and caprice on the part of the jury. The court granted said motions on the ground that the verdicts were inadequate.- Upon the second trial the jury awarded to Mrs. Fox a verdict for $5000 and to Mr. Fox a verdict for $1500. The City of Nashville moved for a new trial, which motion the court overruled, except that the court suggested a remittitur of $1500 in the case of Mrs. Fox, which remittitur was accepted' under protest, but no complaint is made of the same in this court. The judgments complained of are therefore one for $3500 in favor of Mrs. Fox and one for $1500 in favor of Mr. Fox.

At the close of the first trial the city’s motion for a new trial was overruled and it prayed an appeal, which was refused by the trial judge, but the city filed a wayside bill of exceptions. The city has appealed in the nature of a writ of error and it insists in_ this court, among other things, that the trial judge erred in awarding to the plaintiffs a new trial, erred in refusing to grant peremptory instructions in favor of the city upon the first trial; and erred in refusing to grant a new trial after the second trial.

*656 Having before us two bills of exceptions, tbe case stands for examination first upon the prior one. Baugh v. Railroad, 98 Tenn., 119, 38 S. W., 433.

The first complaint in this court to be considered is that the court erred in granting a new trial to the plaintiffs on the ground that the verdict of the jury was so inadequate as to evince passion, prejudice or caprice.

Applying the rules of practice followed in Chesapeake, Ohio & S. W. Railroad Co. v. Higgins, 85 Tenn., 620, 4 S. W., 47, we must, in disposing of this assignment of error, consider the whole question of liability of the city in this case. Prior to the enactment of chapter 106 of the Acts of 1875, Shannon’s Annotated Code, sections 4851-4852, there was a conflict in the decisions of the Supreme Court upon the power of the appellate court to revise the grant of new trials by trial judges. Section 4852 provides that when a wayside bill of exceptions has been filed, as provided in section 4851, it shall be lawful for the appellant in such case to assign for error that the judge in the court below improperly granted or refused a new trial therein, and the appellate court shall have the power to grant new trials, or to correct any errors of the circuit court in granting or refusing the same,- and it follows from this that the order granting a new trial will be considered on appeal from a final judgment. Baugh v. Railroad, supra; Jenkins v. Hankins 98 Tenn., 545, 41 S. W., 1028; Railroad v. Ray, 124 Tenn., 28, 134 S. W., 858. In Railroad v. Scott, 87 Tenn., 494, 11 S. W., 317, the court said:

‘‘If the trial judge has committed no error in allowing such new trial (and very much is necessarily left to his discretion, especially where he is dissatisfied with the verdict), this court will refuse to disturb his action thereon, and will pass to the consideration of the record of the second trial. If, on the other hand, the trial judge has committed manifest error in setting aside the first verdict, this court will enter judgment on such verdict, without looking to the record of the succeeding trial or trials.”

In Railroad v. Higgins, supra, on the first trial there was a vefldict for plaintiff for $500, which, on her motion, was set aside on the ground of the insufficiency of such damages for the loss of her husband. On the second trial there was a verdict and judgment for $5000. The facts shown were substantially the same on both trials. The Supreme Court, exercising its power under the statute, set aside the judgment for $5000 and rendered judgment for $500 on the ground that the' verdict of the jury for $500 did not evince passion, prejudice or corruption authorizing the court to set it aside; that if it showed feeling at all, it was sympathy for the *657 widow wbo sued. But tbis conclusion was ¡based upon the very-weak case made out for the plaintiff.

In Railway Co. v. Lee, 90 Tenn., 570, 18 S. W., 268, referring to the'action of the trial judge in granting a new trial, the court said:

“The record fails to show upon what ground the trial judge set aside the verdict, or that he was requested by counsel to state his reasons therefor. This court has repeatedly held that if the record fads to show the reasons for his action, and no request is made to state his reasons, we will presume that he exercised the discretion given him by law to grant a new trial when he is dissatisfied with the verdict upon the facts. In the absence of reasons given, we will affirm the action of the court below in granting a new trial upon the first trial of this case. ”

In Burchell v. Street Railway Company, 2 Higgins, 576, 584, the Court of Civil Appeals speaking through Judge Higgins, said:

“The Tennessee cases which discuss the power of the court to grant new trials, or set aside verdicts on account of the amount of the verdict, are numerous. They have been so often cited that it is useless to set them down here, suffice it to say that the court is thoroughly familiar with every one of them. The cases more nearly in point are those of Turner v. Turner, 85 Tenn., 387; Ry. Co. v. Higgins, 85 Tenn., 620; Jenkins v. Hankins, 98 Tenn., 548; Coal Co. v. Roddy, 85 Tenn., 400. See, also, Vaulx v. Ry., 120 Tenn., 322.

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Bluebook (online)
6 Tenn. App. 653, 1928 Tenn. App. LEXIS 195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-nashville-v-fox-tennctapp-1928.