Gustin v. Meadows

1974 OK CIV APP 12, 521 P.2d 429
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 12, 1974
DocketNo. 46142
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1974 OK CIV APP 12 (Gustin v. Meadows) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gustin v. Meadows, 1974 OK CIV APP 12, 521 P.2d 429 (Okla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

ROMANG, Judge:

This case grows out of a collision between two automobiles, which took place in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, on August 29, 1971, at about 1:30 o’clock P.M.

Leona Gustin was a passenger in an automobile being driven by her husband, Jesse James Gustin. They were traveling [430]*430east on Indian Hills Road, a graveled road, which was approximately 19 feet wide.

Defendant, Arthur Floyd Meadows, was driving his automobile south on Westminis-ter Road, a dirt road, which was approximately 22 feet wide.

The two automobiles collided in the intersection of said roads, which is near Draper Lake in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. The legal speed limit on both of said roads was 55 miles per hour.

Leona Gustin and Jesse James Gustin as plaintiffs, filed a petition against the defendant, Arthur Floyd Meadows. The first alleged cause of action was for damages for the personal injuries sustained by Leona Gustin in the collision. In the second alleged cause of action, Jesse James Gustin sought to recover damages for medical expenses on his wife, and for loss of his wife’s consortium.

Defendant in his amended answer, alleged certain acts of negligence on the part of each plaintiff, which were denied in plaintiffs’ reply to the amended answer.

Trial of the case before a jury resulted in a verdict for Leona Gustin, fixing the amount of her recovery at $17,500.00. The verdict also read:

“. . . and further find in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff, Jesse James Gustin.”

The Journal Entry of Judgment reads in pertinent part as follows :

“WHEREUPON, upon the aforesaid jury verdicts, it is the order, judgment and decree of the court that plaintiff Leona Gustin have and recover judgment from the defendant Arthur Floyd Meadows in the total sum of $17,500, and it is the further order, judgment and decree of the court that judgment be and is hereby rendered in favor of defendant Arthur Floyd Meadows and against the plaintiff Jesse James Gustin on the cause of action of the plaintiff Jesse James Gustin.”

Leona Gustin and Jesse James Gus-tin have appealed and each seeks a new trial on different grounds. Seven proposi--tions in all are presented. We will first consider the third proposition, which reads as follows:

“PROPOSITION III. It was error for the trial court to instruct that if Mr. Gustin was contributorially negligent, he would be banned from recovering medical expenses and loss of services due to Mrs. Gustin’s injury.”

In Laws v. Fisher, 513 P.2d 876 (Okl.1973) the court syllabus reads as follows:

“A husband’s right to recover special damages for loss of his wife’s services, or for medical and hospital expenses arising out of her injuries, is derivative only, so that if she has no valid claim for such injuries, he is likewise without right to recover for such damages.”

The verdict in the instant case carries with it a finding that Leona Gustin was not guilty of any negligence, but also carries with it a finding that Jesse James Gustin was guilty of one or more acts of negligence which contributed to the proximate cause of the collision and the resulting injuries. The real question is whether in that type of situation, a husband may recover for loss of his wife’s consortium and for medical expenses caused by her injuries to which his negligence has contributed.

41 Am.Jur.2d, § 452, p. 380 reads as folows:

“A husband’s consent to, or his negligence contributing to, an injury to his wife is a defense to an action by him for loss of her consortium and expenses resulting from such injuries to her.”

In Marton v. McCasland, 16 A.D.2d 781, 228 N.Y.S.2d 756, 757 (1962) the Supreme Court of New York states in the opinion as follows:

“. . . Also, it should be noted that the finding of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff driver, implicit in the verdict of the jury and supported by the evidence, would in any event defeat his right of recovery upon this alleged derivative cause of action for loss of services and medical expenses of his wife.”

[431]*431We find no Oklahoma decision on this precise point, but the above appears to be the majority rule. We therefore hold that the said third proposition is without merit.

We have reviewed plaintiffs’ fourth and fifth propositions in the light of the evidence in this case and the applicable Oklahoma law, and find that said propositions are also without merit.

Plaintiffs’ sixth and seventh propositions read as follows:

“PROPOSITION VI. The court erred in failing to instruct the jury on joint and several liability as requested by the plaintiffs.
“PROPOSITION VII. It was error by the trial court to refuse to give plaintiff’s requested instructions Numbers 7 & 8.”

Plaintiffs have failed to include in their brief any part of their requested instruction on joint and several liability, and they have failed to set out any part of their requested Instructions 7 and 8.

Rule IS of the Rules of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, reads as follows:

“Where a party complains of an instruction given or refused, he shall set out in totidem verbis the instruction or the portion thereof to which he objects together with his objection thereto.”

Since plaintiffs have not complied with said Rule IS, we decline to further consider their propositions VI and VII.

This leaves two remaining propositions, I and II, of which the first reads as follows:

“PROPOSITION I. The trial court erred in not allowing plaintiff, Leona Gustin’s evidence concerning her knee injury.”

The trial court refused to allow testimony as to the knee injury of Leona Gustin on the ground that such injury was not alleged in the petition. In this regard the petition reads as follows:

“As a result of defendant’s negligence the muscles, ligaments, tendons, soft tissues, bony structures, nerve centers, and blood vessels in plaintiff’s head, neck, back, shoulders, arms, hands, legs and feet were pulled, torn, strained, traumatized and their functions impaired, and plaintiff’s ribs were broken and her lungs and liver punctured.”

The transcript of testimony herein contains the following:

“THE COURT: Doctor Harsha, now they asked you something about an injury to the knee. Is this injury that they asked you about and about which you were going to relate before we came in here, does it have anything to do with the muscles, ligaments, tendons, soft tissues, bony structures, nerve centers or blood vessels in the legs ?
A The answer is yes, sir, so far as soft tissue and bony structure.
***** *
“THE COURT: The only thing this Court is concerned with is Supreme Court decision Brown versus McNair where the Supreme Court says unless you specifically plead your injuries in advance you cannot prove them at the time of trial. There is an objection now-that they have pled nothing to the knee.

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1974 OK CIV APP 12, 521 P.2d 429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gustin-v-meadows-oklacivapp-1974.