Fisher v. Ochoco Lumber Co.

173 P.2d 298, 179 Or. 524, 1946 Ore. LEXIS 179
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 17, 1946
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 173 P.2d 298 (Fisher v. Ochoco Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fisher v. Ochoco Lumber Co., 173 P.2d 298, 179 Or. 524, 1946 Ore. LEXIS 179 (Or. 1946).

Opinion

•KELLY, J.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries ■ alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff while engaged in his work as an employee of defendant;

From a judgment in the sum of $5,000.00 in favor of. plaintiff, defendant appeals.

Three assignments of error are presented by defendant.

' By. the first of these'assignments, it is urged that the trial, court erréd in entering a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the above named sum and ordering that execution issue therefor without any allowance of credit for compensation payments previously made.

¡'By-its second assignment, defendant claims that the court erred in Overruling defendant’s objection to *526 certain parts of the cross-examination of Mr. Williard C. Schwenn, a witness called by defendant.

Defendant’s third assignment of error is to the effect that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury to return a verdict in favor of defendant and against plaintiff.

As to the first assignment of error, when the verdict was received, no.objection was made to the entry of judgment in accordance therewith. Defendant seeks to present the question of the propriety- of the trial court’s action in that regard by reason of a tender made by defendant to the clerk of the trial court of the amount of the judgment in suit less the sum of $1,191.32; that sum being the amount of compensation payments previously made by defendant’s insurance carrier to plaintiff. Said clerk refused to accept said sum so tendered in satisfaction of said judgment. We think that this fails to bring to this court the question of the propriety of the course taken by the trial judge in entering such judgment.

Our consideration of defendant’s contentions on appeal, therefore, will be confined to those that are based upon the error of the trial judge and in the case of instructions to the jury-.we will consider only the alleged errors, if any, of the trial judge to which exceptions were asked and allowed.

In the case at bar, no exception appears in the record with respect to the failure of the trial court to expressly instruct the jury to deduct the amount of the admitted payments from the award of damages, if any, which otherwise the jury would make.

The checks disclosing the amount of the payments were received in evidence and accompanied the jury when they retired to deliberate upon their verdict. The *527 amount of the award, if deemed to be in a sum including both the payments and the amount of the judgment, is but $6,191:32, which is not excessive for the injury shown by this record to have been suffered by plaintiff.

It would have been proper in his instructions upon the measure of damages for the trial judge to have stated that the jury should, if and when it awarded damages, give defendant credit for payments admittedly made by defendant’s insurance carrier and return a verdict for the damages suffered by plaintiff less the amount of such payments.

The trial court gave an instruction to the jury upon the measure of damages which was requested by counsel for appealing defendant. No exception thereto was asked and none given. While no reference was made therein to the payments made by defendant’s insurance carrier to plaintiff and to the duty of the jury to allow credit therefor upon the amount of damages which otherwise would be awarded plaintiff, the court had advised the attorneys, but not in the presence of the jury, that the law required that to be done, thus clearly showing that if the court’s attention had been drawn to his omission to so state to the jury, the trial court would have so declared the law.

In this state of the record, the error, if any, was invited by defendant’s counsel. Invited error cannot be assigned as a basis for reversal. Brown v. Jones, 137 Or. 520, 525, 3 P. (2d) 768.

Moreover, no exception having been taken and allowed, the question is not before us upon this appeal.

Defendant cites four cases in support of this its first assignment of error.

One of these cases is Amarillo Transfer & Storage Co. v. DeShong, (Tex. Civ. App.) 82 S. W. (2d) 381. *528 Ill the opinion in that ease, there is no reference:.to any tender to the clerk of the court and certainly no Suggestion that such a tender as appears to have been made in the instant ease would present any question to/ the appellate court for review.

The second case cited by defendant upon its- first assignment of error is Kley v. Mealy, 127 N. Y. 555, 28 N. E. 593. In that case no tender was made. The court of appeals reversed the ¡judgment of the court of common pleas dismissing plaintiff’s complaint.on the opening of plaintiff’s attorney and on the.-ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.”. . ....

In the case of Ingram v. Carleton Lumber Co., 77 Or. 633; 152 P. 256, cited by defendant, in support of its first assignment of error, there was no tender to the clerk of the court. There, the trial court, in speaking of the amount of damages, said to the jury:

“Should you find for the plaintiff, you aró::nót to take into consideration this $150 that has been paid to him; that has not anything to do with the case.”

In the bill of exceptions in the Carleton Lumber Company case, defendant’s tenth exception is based upon the trial court’s course in that regard.

In Miller v. Spokane International R. Co., 82 Wash. 170, 143 P. 981, a verdict in the sum of $7,500 was returned in favor of plaintiff. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court of Washington remanded the cáse ’to the trial court with instructions to credit the sum of $138 which had been paid to plaintiff upon the judgment in the sum of $7,500 that the trial court had enteréd in accordance with the verdict. No suggestion is'inade there that the' defendant had made a tender to the *529 clerk óf/the. trial court of said sum of $138 upon which alorie. it: based its right to present the question to the supreme court of the propriety of remanding the cause as stated.

We find in the authorities no holding that the action of the clerk of a trial court in declining to accept less than the amount of a judgment because of a payment made, as1 in the instant case, is of such a character as'to present to the appellate court the question, of. the propriety of the court’s action in entering such judgment.' . .

Gross-examination is subject to the control of .the trial judge and upon seasonable objection- thereto, an abuse, of judicial discretion by the trial judge in permitting. improper cross-examination will be corrected on appeal when the matter is properly presented t'd the appellate- court. We will therefore review the record bearing upon defendant’s second assignment of error.

Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
173 P.2d 298, 179 Or. 524, 1946 Ore. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fisher-v-ochoco-lumber-co-or-1946.