Culbertson v. Haynes

127 F. Supp. 837, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3795
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedFebruary 4, 1955
DocketCiv. No. 707
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 127 F. Supp. 837 (Culbertson v. Haynes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Culbertson v. Haynes, 127 F. Supp. 837, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3795 (N.D. Ind. 1955).

Opinion

PARKINSON, District Judge.

This is an action in damages for the alleged wrongful death of the plaintiff’s decedent wherein the defendant, Robert R. Haynes, filed a cross-complaint against the other defendants in damages for alleged personal injuries.

The cause was tried to a jury resulting in a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $15,000 and that the cross-complainant take nothing by reason of his cross-complaint.

Following the return of the verdict, the defendants, George (N.) Toms and Emery Transportation Company, filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict in accordance with the movants’ motion for a directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence, and, in the alternative, a motion for a new trial assigning 12 grounds therefor. It is the question thereby raised which now solicits the decision of this Court.

The collisions out of which this action arose occurred in Whitley County, Indiana, and we must bear in mind that [839]*839it is, therefore, the law of Indiana which applies herein.

The first 4 specifications of the motion raise the question of the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. The Court followed the evidence very closely as it was introduced and has. reconsidered and weighed it subsequent to the filing of the motions by the defendants, George (N.) Toms and Emery Transportation Company, and, without detailing it in this opinion, is convinced that, as to the liability of the defendants, the verdict is not only supported by substantial evidence but is sustained by a preponderance thereof.

As to specification 5, the jury were the judges of the credibility of the witnesses. They believed the testimony of the witnesses that the death of plaintiff’s decedent was proximately caused by the negligence of the defendants. In a review of the evidence by this Court we can conceive of no reason why the jury was not completely justified in doing what they did and no cause has been shown to this Court for deciding otherwise.

We have already held that the verdict of the jury is founded upon substantial evidence and was not, therefore, the result of speculation, guess and conjecture. Specification 6 is accordingly without merit.

Specification 7 is that “The verdict of the jury is against the law”. A review of the entire record in this cause will clearly indicate that the jury decided correctly according to the law applicable to the facts; that the verdict of the jury is sustained by a preponderance of the evidence, and that the verdict was not improperly affected by any error of law occurring at the trial. The verdict, therefore, is not against the law, and instead of the verdict being against the manifest weight of the evidence, as contended in specification 8, it is to the contrary, and is supported by a preponderance of the evidence.

Specification 9 is grounded upon the alleged failure of the plaintiff to produce any evidence showing the earning capacity of plaintiff’s decedent or any evidence showing the monetary support which plaintiff could reasonably expect to receive from her decedent or to show that she suffered any monetary loss as the result of the death of plaintiff’s decedent. This specification, under the circumstances here existent, is so closely allied with specification 12 that the two will be considered together.

Specification 10 complains of the introduction into evidence of a mortality table by the plaintiff without submitting to the jury cautionary instructions as to the use thereof. In the first place' no mortality table was introduced into evidence. The record is as follows:

“Mr. Gates: Your Honor, at this time I would like to put in evidence the life expectancy of Ralph Culbertson. According to the American Experience Table, the life expectancy of a man 58 years old is 15.39 years.
“Mr. Haynie: We have no objections, your Honor, providing there is an instruction given in that regard.
“Mr. Benjamin: No objections.”

There was no mortality table introduced in evidence. Counsel for plaintiff stated in the presence of the jury that he would like to put in evidence the life expectancy of the plaintiff’s decedent and' according to the American Experience Table that was 15.39 years. This statement was made without objection, and, under the law of Indiana, was before the jury to be considered by them for all purposes along with all of the other evidence introduced. It is true that counsel for the moving defendants said that they had no objections if there was an instruction given in that regard, but the Court made no comment whatsoever. This Court had no way of knowing what type of instruction counsel had in mind. He did not inform the Court, and if counsel desired to have the jury instructed by way of any limitation in' the consideration of this evidence by [840]*840the jury, he tendered no instruction to the Court in that regard whatsoever.

It has always been the law in Indiana that life expectancy tables are admissible in evidence in actions such as the one at bar and while it is true that they are not taken as fixing the expectancy of the life of a particular person, or as forming a legal basis for a calculation, they are accepted as furnishing some evidence, to be considered by the jury in connection with all other pertinent evidence, in ascertaining the probar ble duration of the life in question. Smiser v. State ex rel. King, 1897, 17 Ind.App. 519, 47 N.E. 229; Pittsburgh, C., C. & St. L. R. Co. v. Rogers, 1909, 45 Ind.App. 230, 87 N.E. 28; Pittsburgh C., C. & St. L. R. Co. v. Brown, 1912, 178 Ind. 11, 97 N.E. 145, 98 N.E. 625.

The law in Indiana, and not the law in Illinois, is applicable herein, but even in Illinois, where the rule appears to be different than in Indiana, the Supreme Court in the case of Avance v. Thompson, 387 Ill. 77, 55 N.E.2d 57, on page 60, after stating that the defendant objected to the introduction of the mortality tables in evidence and commenting that some authorities hold that the defendant cannot complain in the absence of a request for instructions to define their use but that the failure of the court to explain their application by instructions would have a prejudicial effect, holds that they “would not reverse because of this evidence, alone, but since a new trial is necessary we are expressing our views for the benefit of the parties in case the tables should be again offered in evidence.” (Our emphasis.)

We believe it to be the law of well regulated jury trial procedure, and we so hold, that where evidence is introduced without objection, and a party contends that the law places limitations on the consideration thereof by the jury, the burden rests on the party claiming those limitations to tender a proper instruction to the court and by his failure to do so he forecloses himself from objecting thereto after verdict.

Specification 11 reads as follows;

“The defendants’ requested instruction that damages awarded to plaintiff’s decedent for personal injuries or death are not subject to Federal income tax was denied.” (Our emphasis.)

That is not what the tendered instruction said. It was tendered by the moving defendants as defendants’ instruction No. 2 and reads as follows:

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In re Greenwood Air Crash
161 F.R.D. 387 (S.D. Indiana, 1995)

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Bluebook (online)
127 F. Supp. 837, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/culbertson-v-haynes-innd-1955.