Epps v. Clymer Materials Co.

147 N.E.2d 502, 104 Ohio App. 173, 4 Ohio Op. 2d 239, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 894
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 6, 1957
Docket269
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 147 N.E.2d 502 (Epps v. Clymer Materials Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Epps v. Clymer Materials Co., 147 N.E.2d 502, 104 Ohio App. 173, 4 Ohio Op. 2d 239, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 894 (Ohio Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

Guernsey, J.

This is an appeal on questions of law from a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Union County in an action wherein the Clymer Materials Company was defendant, and Everett E. Epps was plaintiff.

The action was one for damages for personal and other injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff in a collision between an automobile owned and operated by him and a cement-mixer truck owned by defendant, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of defendant’s agent and employee.

The case was tried to a jury in the Common Pleas Court, which returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant in the sum of $6,000. Judgment was duly entered upon this verdict, and the appeal is taken from that judgment.

Defendant, appellant herein, assigns error in a number of particulars, but upon the argument of this cause in this court admitted that all the assignments of error except the second and third assignments were without merit.

The second and third assignments of error are as follows:

“2. There was error in the court’s charge to the jury that plaintiff was entitled to damages for loss of time in the past and in the future, and for diminished earning capacity.

“3. The amount of the verdict, is excessive and is not sustained by the evidence.”

We shall consider these assignments in the order mentioned.

An examination of the court’s charge to the jury reveals that the court charged, among other things, as follows:

“If your verdict is for plaintiff, then you will continue with your deliberations and determine what amount of money you will award to the plaintiff as damages that are a direct result of this collision. The verdict should be in such amount as will fairly and fully compensate the plaintiff for the injury which he has actually sustained directly resulting from such colli *175 sion, but in no event your verdict should not exceed the amount of $10,000 which is claimed in the petition. This compensation should include the pain and suffering which he has already endured as well as pain which he will endure in the future, if his injury is of such a character as to cause him pain in the future. It ivill also include the time he has actually lost, if any, by reason of his injuries so sustained and the loss that may be reasonably certain to accrue to him by reason of his diminished capacity to earn money in the future resulting from such injuries, if you find that his injuries are such as to diminish his capacity to earn money in the future.

“If any of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff are permanent in their nature, or if there is loss of usefulness to the arm of the plaintiff by reason of such injuries, such facts may be considered by you in determining the amount of damages which the plaintiff has sustained, and you have a right to consider not only what the loss has been in these respects in the past but that which may reasonably be expected to follow in the future.” (Emphasis added.)

Upon conclusion of the charge, defendant’s counsel entered the following objection which was, thereupon, overruled:

“We object to the charge regarding damages by providing for earning power past and future because there was no allegation in the petition, no request for special damages, no request for loss of services.”

The portion of the charge above quoted was the only portion thereof dealing with the manner in which the jury should determine the amount of damages in the event its verdict was for the plaintiff.

An examination of plaintiff’s petition reveals that there were no specific allegations therein as to loss of earnings or as to impairment of earning capacity.

A complete examination of the bill of exceptions reveals that plaintiff testified that he was 76 years of age; that his business was farming and horse training; that he had a farm operated partly by Ms son, on which he (plaintiff) helped: that he trained horses by breaking them, starting the training at home and finishing it at the fairground; that his injuries, so far as the ordinary work he has to do is concerned, handicap him *176 in most any kind of work, general farm work, papering and plastering and any carpenter work; that he can not drive a nail unless it is where it can be driven with elbow movement only; and that he can not reach out and up. Dr. Maclvor, a witness for the plaintiff, testified to the effect that plaintiff’s injuries were permanent. There is no evidence whatsoever in the bill of exceptions as to the amount of money which plaintiff had been earning, the amount which he had been capable of making, the earnings lost by him by reason of his injury, or the amount, if any, by which his earning capacity would be impaired by reason thereof. Except as hereinbefore indicated, there was no evidence of the extent of farm work, papering, plastering, carpentering and horse training, or of any other kind of work that the plaintiff had been doing prior to the accident, was able to do after the accident and before trial, or would be able to do in the future.

The sole question, therefore, to be decided under this assignment of error is whether it is error for a court to include loss of earnings and impairment of earning capacity as elements of damage in its charge to the jury where there are no specific allegations pertaining thereto in plaintiff’s petition and where there is no evidence adduced as to the value or extent thereof.

The controlling case in Ohio on the question of the submission of impairment of earning capacity to a jury as an element of damages is the case of Hanna v. Stoll, 112 Ohio St., 344, 147 N. E., 339, decided by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1925, wherein the court held in paragraph two of the syllabus, as follows:

“2. Where impairment of earning capacity is pleaded as special damages, it is essential that evidence be adduced from which an estimate thereof may be made by the jury, and in the absence of any evidence upon the subject, it can not properly be submitted to the jury as an element of damages.”

It will be noted that the Supreme Court so held even though impairment of earning capacity was pleaded.

The case of Hanna v. Stoll, supra, involved a physician who had been trained for special work and who was injured; and attempts have been made to distinguish the case on the theory that a jury would not be qualified, under such circum *177 stances, to determine the value of the impairment of such' specialized earning capacity, but that a jury could do so when the work involved was not specialized in nature. However, this distinction has been held not always to be a valid one, even in the case of a common laborer, where there is no competent showing as to what the common laborer earned. To this effect we cite the case of Youngstown Municipal Railway Co. v. Wright,

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Bluebook (online)
147 N.E.2d 502, 104 Ohio App. 173, 4 Ohio Op. 2d 239, 1957 Ohio App. LEXIS 894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/epps-v-clymer-materials-co-ohioctapp-1957.