Greene v. Louisville & Nashville R. R.

25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 236, 1924 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 2029
CourtOhio Superior Court, Cincinnati
DecidedMarch 14, 1924
StatusPublished

This text of 25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 236 (Greene v. Louisville & Nashville R. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Superior Court, Cincinnati primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greene v. Louisville & Nashville R. R., 25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 236, 1924 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 2029 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1924).

Opinion

Marx, J.

This is an action brought by Dora B. Greene, as administratrix of the estate of her husband William B. Greene, deceased, to recover damages of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company which is alleged to have negligently caused the death of said William B. Greene.

The case was tried before the Court upon the pleadings and the evidence and a verdict was returned by the jury in [237]*237favor of the plaintiff and assessing her damages at $20,000.00. After the verdict was returned, various motions were filed by the plaintiff and defendant which are considered by the Court in the following order:

1. A motion by the plaintiff for leave to amend her petition by setting forth the law of the State of Kentucky with respect to actions for wrongful death.

2. A motion by the defendant for judgment in its favor on the pleadings and notwithstanding the verdict.

3. A motion by the plaintiff for a new trial.

This unusual situation arises from the technical omission of the plaintiff to plead in her petition or to prove at the trial, the statutes and law of the State of Kentucky authorizing a recovery for wrongful death by the personal representative of the deceased.

The attention of the Court was first called to this omission upon the hearing of the application of the plaintiff fox-leave to amend her petition by adding the necessary allegation as to the Kentucky law.

The defendant objects to the proposed amendment on the ground that it is offered too late and attempts to change the cause of action pleaded in the petition from a common law action for wrongful death to a statutory action for wrongful death and is not supported by the evidence. These objections have been carefully considered by the Court. Section 11663 of the Ohio General Code provides that:

“before or after judgment, in furtherance of justice and on such terms as it deems proper, the Court may amend my pleadings, * * * by inserting other allegations material to the case or, when the amendment does not substantially change the claim or defense by conforming the pleading or proceeding to the f-acts proved:” * * *

This statute sufficiently disposes of the objection that the Court is without power to permit an amendment after the return of the verdict. In furtherance of justice, Ohio Courts have uniformly held that amendments inserting [238]*238“allegations material to the case” may be made after verdict and, in certain instances, after judgment.

It is also argned that the proposed amendment sub stantially changes the claim and, if permitted, would constitute a new and different cause of action from that pleaded in the petition. This argument proceeds upon the theory that the petition pleads a common law cause of action for wrongful death and that the proposed amendment would change such cause of action to a statutory action. There is not the slightest merit to this argument. In the first place there was no common law action for wrongful death in Ohio, Kentucky, or elsewhere. While the Court does not take judicial notice of statutes and laws of a foreign state, it does take judicial notice of the statutes of the state of Ohio. Section 10770 of the General Code of Ohio provides in the second paragraph:

“When death is caused by a wrongful act, neglect or default in another state, territory or foreign country, for which a right to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof is given by a statute of such other state, territory or foreign country, such right of action may be enforced in this state, in all cases where such other state, territory or foreign country allows the enforcement in its courts of the statute of this state of a like character; but in no case shall the damages exceed the amount authorized to be recovered for a wrongful neglect or default in this state, causing, death. Every such action brought under this act shall be commenced within the time prescribed for the commencement of such action by the statute of such other state, territory or foreign country.”

The action set forth in the original petition filed in this case was a statutory action, specifically authorized by the above section of the General Code of Ohio.

The only defect in the petition was the omission of an allegation with reference to the Kentucky Law and this was only important because of the rule of law that a Court [239]*239cannot take judicial notice of the law of another state and the requirement that such law be alleged and proved as other questions of fact. A directly parallel ease to the one at bar is Lustig v. New York, L. E. & W. R. Co., 20 N. Y. Supp. 477. In that ease an action was brought in New York to recover for a wrongful death caused in New Jersey. At the close of the evidence, defendant moved for a directed verdici on the ground that the plaintiff did not plead or prove the New Jersey Statute authorizing a recovery for wrongful death. The plaintiff thereupon asked and was granted leave, to amend the petition by setting forth the New Jersey statute and, to reopen the case and offer evidence of the New Jersey Statute. This was done over the objection of the defendant. There was a verdict for the plaintiff and on appeal, the action of the trial court was assigned as error. However, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment below and held that the New York Statute with respect to amendments, which is similar to the Ohio Statute, permitted the filing of the amendment.

Concerning the claim that the cause was thereby substantially changed, the Appellate Court said at page 479:

“In this case the appellant insists that the amendment in effect allowed a change from a common-law action to an action upon a statute. We think, however, the appellant is mistaken in this view, because, as there could be no action at common-law for negligence resulting in death, and as the only cause of action is one created by statute, it is evident that the plaintiff’s cause of action was an action upon a statute. Had it been brought in respect to a cause of action arising in this state, it would have been unnecessary to plead the statute. The omission of plaintiff consisted merely in overlooking the fact that, where an action is predicated upon a foreign statute, such statute must be pleaded, and, upon the trial, must be proven. This, therefore, was an action upon a statute; but the plaintiff omitted a material allegation, namely, the statute itself; and the amendment allowed resulted, not in changing the cause of action, but in the language of the Code, in inserting “an allegation material to the case.”

[240]*240A direct Ohio precedent for authority to permit the proposed amendment is found in Stowe-Fuller Co. v. Dominick, 20 C. C. (N. S.) 556; affirmed by the Supreme Court without opinion in 76 Ohio St., 593. In that case, plaintiff was an employee of the defendant and brought suit for personal injuries sustained in the course of his employment. .He failed to allege that he did not have knowledge of the defective condition of which he complained, which under the law, as it then stood, was essential. An answer was filed and the ease tried without any objection to the pleading.

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Related

Lustig v. New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad
20 N.Y.S. 477 (New York Supreme Court, 1892)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 236, 1924 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 2029, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greene-v-louisville-nashville-r-r-ohsuperctcinci-1924.