Dwyer v. Chicago, St. Paul & O. Railway Co.

51 N.W. 244, 84 Iowa 479
Supreme Court of Iowa·Decided February 1, 1892·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

G-raNG-er, J.

The plaintiff is the administrator of the estate of Ann Dwyer, deceased, who was on the ninth day of July, 1889, struck by defendant’s cars, as a result of which she died about thirty days thereafter. The petition specifies the injuries sustained, and adds: “All of which caused her great pain and suffering for a period of about thirty days, when she died from such injuries.” A motion to strike out the words as to pain and suffering was overruled, and the court instructed the jury that, if it found for the plaintiff, to allow a. “reasonable compensation for pain and suffering.” The jury returned a general verdict for the plaintiff for three thousand dollars, and specially found that two thous- and, three hundred dollars of the amount was for “pain and suffering,” and seven hundred dollars “as damages to the estate.” An assignment'brings in question the correctness of the court’s action in permitting the. jury to consider pain and suffering as an element of' damage. The action was commenced after the death of the plaintiff’s intestate. If the action had been commenced in her lifetime, it is unquestioned that pain and suffering caused by the injury would have been a proper-element of damage, and this would be true if, after the commencement of the action, she had died, and her administrator had been substituted as party plaintiff, and prosecuted the suit to judgment. Muldowney v. Illinois Central Ry. Co., 36 Iowa, 462. We come, then, to the important inquiry if such damages are permissible in such a case, where the action is commenced by the administrator. . The only authority for maintaining such an action by the legal representative is by virtue of the statute. At the common law, the cause of action abated with the death of the injured party. The law authorizing the action is found in Code, section 2525. [481] “AH causes of action shall .survive and may be brought notwithstanding the death of theperson entitled or liable to the same.” We are cited to no case, in this or any other state, where the rule contended for by the appel-lee, and allowed by the district court, has been sustained. It is claimed, however, that the reason for this, as to other states, is because of the peculiarity of the statutes under which such actions are permitted to survive. In several cases this court has expressed its view as to the measure of damages in such cases, and in such a way that the appellant regards the law on this point as settled in its favor, while the appellee regards the language thus relied upon as merely incidental to other points determined, and in no way decisive of the question now before us. It is true that the precise question now before us was not involved for determination in any of the Iowa cases cited, and the language relied upon by the appellant has been used incidentally in the discussion of other questions; but it is not to be understood, because of this, that .such language is without value in our deliberations on this question; for much of the language so used is in regard to questions so allied to this in its legal significance as to make them determinable upon quite similar considerations. Por instance, the rule as to the measure of damage in cases of this kind has been considered, and, with the point before us in view, a rule excluding such damage has been adopted.

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Dwyer v. Chicago, St. Paul & O. Railway Co., 51 N.W. 244, 84 Iowa 479 (iowa 1892).

51 N.W. 244 (Dwyer v. Chicago, St. Paul & O. Railway Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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