Cohen v. Hill

286 S.W. 661, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 728
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 8, 1926
DocketNo. 11555. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 286 S.W. 661 (Cohen v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cohen v. Hill, 286 S.W. 661, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 728 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinions

Max Cohen and his wife, Mrs. Mary Cohen, have appealed from a judgment against them in favor of Miss Laura Hill, for personal injuries sustained by her as the result of a collision between an automobile driven by Mrs. Cohen and another car in which plaintiff was riding; the recovery being based upon findings of negligence on the part of Mrs. Cohen, which was the proximate cause of the collision and consequent injuries to the plaintiff.

In her petition plaintiff alleged that she had incurred expenses for medicines, medical treatment, and for services of a nurse, all of which were made necessary to properly care *Page 662 for the injuries sustained in the accident, and she sought a recovery for damages by reason thereof and also for injury done to her wearing apparel; an itemized statement of all such claims being set out in the petition.

In addition to those damages, she claimed damages for the following personal injuries:

"(1) Her right foot and leg has been cut and lacerated and severely bruised. That a condition of swelling has set in, which is most painful and annoying to this plaintiff.

"(2) That plaintiff has sustained a severe wrench of her left side, which pains her severely, and has since the time of the collision, and she has reason to believe and does believe that it will continue for some time to come.

"(3) Plaintiff would show that she has sustained a severe shock to her nervous system, and that it is difficult for her to sleep at night, and she has been transformed from a healthy, normal person, of average composure, into a highly nervous person, which condition persists, and which she has reason to believe and does believe will be of more or less permanent nature.

"(4) That her entire body is subject to aches and pains, which she did not suffer from prior to said collision, and which has persisted since said collision and which have caused her great pain and suffering, and this plaintiff has been internally hurt, and that said injury is permanent in its nature.

"Plaintiff would show that because of the foregoing injuries which were caused by the said carelessness and negligence of the defendants, and because of the said pain and suffering which she has sustained, she has been damaged thereby to the further sum of $2,500.

"Plaintiff would show: That she is a young woman 25 years of age and is engaged in earning her own living and is a school teacher in the public schools of Fort Worth. That notwithstanding the pain and suffering she experienced, she has been compelled by necessity to attend upon her work during the day, but has been compelled to take her bed when not actually in school, in order to make it possible for her to attend upon the said school duties, and this plaintiff alleged that her injuries have greatly decreased her earning capacity and that her earning capacity will be permanently decreased because of said injuries, caused by the negligence of defendants. That because of said decrease in earning capacity, plaintiff would show that she has been damaged to the extent of $5,000.

"Wherefore, premises considered, plaintiff prays that citation issue, and that upon bearing she have judgment against the defendants jointly and severally, in the amount of her damage to the sum of $7,700.63, together with costs and all other relief to which she shall show herself entitled."

Numerous special exceptions were addressed to the petition, presenting the contention that the allegations of personal injuries, and that plaintiff's earning capacity had been thereby impaired, were too vague, uncertain, and indefinite, and did not state the manner and extent of the injuries, and therefore were insufficient to put the defendants upon notice of the facts upon which plaintiff intended to rely for recovery.

Neither in the propositions shown in appellants' brief, in which complaint is made of the action of the court in refusing to sustain the special exceptions, nor in the statement following those propositions, is there any reference to any order of court entered in the minutes passing upon the exceptions, although the transcript shows bills of exception, approved by the court, reciting the fact that the special exceptions were presented and overruled.

It is settled by rule 53 for the government of district and county courts, and by numerous decisions of this state, that an order of court overruling or sustaining special exceptions to a pleading must be entered in the minutes of the court, and cannot be shown by a bill of exception. Ilseng v. Carter (Tex.Civ.App.) 158 S.W. 1163; Withers v. Crenshaw (Tex.Civ.App.) 155 S.W. 1189 (writ of error dismissed for want of jurisdiction); Daniel v. Daniel (Tex.Civ.App.) 128 S.W. 471 (writ of error denied); Alvord National Bank v. Waples-Platter Gro. Co.,54 Tex. Civ. App. 225, 118 S.W. 232; Dobson v. Zimmerman,55 Tex. Civ. App. 394, 118 S.W. 236; Bishop v. Mount (Tex.Civ.App.)152 S.W. 442. It follows, therefore, that the special exceptions to plaintiff's petition must be considered as having been waived by the defendants, and the assignments of error based thereon are accordingly overruled.

Several assignments of error are presented to the action of the court in overruling appellants' objections to testimony to the injuries sustained by plaintiff, on the ground that they were not alleged in the petition. Those injuries included a scar on plaintiff's face, injuries to her ear, neck, back, right side, arm, jaw, and ribs. On the same ground, objections were also made to proof of medical treatment, nursing, and drug bills incurred by reason of all of those injuries, and pain suffered as a result thereof. It would unduly prolong this opinion to set out in detail all of the testimony objected to, but the substance of it is indicated by what is said above. Many of the bills show that, in addition to testimony as to the injuries just designated, plaintiff suffered pains therefrom. It will be noted that in plaintiff's petition there was an allegation that she had suffered aches and pains all over her body. In the absence of a bill of exception to that allegation, testimony that she suffered pains in any part of her body from any injury would be admissible. It is a familiar rule that if a part of the evidence objected to by a single exception is admissible, and a part inadmissible, the overruling of the objection does not constitute reversible error. Furthermore, plaintiff alleged specifically that she had sustained a severe shock to her nervous system; that it was difficult for her to sleep at night; and that she had been transformed from a normal *Page 663 person of average composure into a highly nervous person, which condition she had reason to believe to be more or less permanent, all of which resulted from the collision complained of. In view of those allegations, we believe that proof of all the injuries she received, whether specifically alleged or not, was admissible. And in the charge of the court the jury was expressly instructed not to consider any injuries not specifically alleged in the petition, except in so far as the jury believed those injuries affected her nervous system, and that they would limit any damages they might find to compensation for the injuries specifically alleged in the petition, and for physical pain and mental anguish resulting therefrom, and for injury to her nervous system.

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Bluebook (online)
286 S.W. 661, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohen-v-hill-texapp-1926.