Hampton v. Rautenstrauch

338 S.W.2d 105, 83 A.L.R. 2d 1260, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 706
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 11, 1960
Docket47702
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 338 S.W.2d 105 (Hampton v. Rautenstrauch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hampton v. Rautenstrauch, 338 S.W.2d 105, 83 A.L.R. 2d 1260, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 706 (Mo. 1960).

Opinions

DALTON, Judge.

Action for $25,150 damages for personal injuries and property damage sustained by plaintiff when the automobile she was operating on a public highway was struck from the rear by an automobile operated by defendant. The cause was submitted on primary negligence under the rear-end collision doctrine. See Jones v. Central States Oil Co., 350 Mo. 91, 164 S.W.2d 914. Verdict and judgment were for plaintiff for $10,000 and defendant has appealed. The notice of appeal was filed on June 19, 1959, hence jurisdiction of the appeal is in this Court. Section 477.040 RSMo 1949, as amended by Laws 1959, S.B. 7, § 1.

Plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that, on October 14, 1957, while a light rain was falling, plaintiff was driving her 1955 Oldsmobile westwardly in the 7200 block on St. Charles Rock Road, St. Louis County, in a careful and prudent manner, on the north or right-hand side of said highway at 15 miles per hour; and that defendant driving his 1954 DeSoto automobile in the same direction on the same road at a much higher rate of speed approached the plaintiff’s automobile from the rear and negligently and carelessly caused' and permitted his automobile to collide with the rear of plaintiff’s automobile, pushing it forward about a car’s length or more and causing plaintiff to sustain a whip-lash injury to her neck and other injuries. Since the assignments of error on this appeal relate only to the admission of evidence, the argument made to the jury and the amount of the verdict, it will not be necessary to further review the facts attending the collision, or the negligence submitted.

For convenience we shall consider appellant’s third assignment first. Apel-lant insists that “the amount of the judgment is excessive and is the result of bias, passion and prejudice against appellant.” In determining this issue we shall consider the evidence in a light favorable to plaintiff and to the verdict returned by the jury, since the jury could have so found the facts as a basis for determining the amount awarded. Evidence less favorable or contradictory will be disregarded.

Plaintiff was 35 years old, a married woman with two children. She was on her [107]*107way to a luncheon engagement at the home of a friend at the time of the collision. The back bumper of plaintiff’s car was pushed into the body of the car damaging the “rear quarter panel and lower trunk panel,” so that the car sustained a loss in value of one hundred dollars. At the scene of the collision plaintiff complained to defendant that the collision “jerked her neck” and that her “neck felt a little funny,” but she didn’t think she was severely hurt. She was able to drive her car and proceeded to the home of her friend, as she had planned, but she “looked very pale and upset,” appeared very nervous, had pain in the back of her neck, took codeine for pain and left the luncheon within an hour, without eating, and returned and went' to bed. She had difficulty sleeping that night on account of pain and the following morning she could not get up at all. Her right arm and right leg would not move and her husband helped her out of bed, dressed her and took her to Dr. Michaelree, who referred her to Dr. Merenda for X-ray because she complained of pain and stiffness in her back and neck. She described the pain in her right arm as “a slow cramp and then sometimes fast, hard pains all the way down into my fingers.” At times her hand felt like she had a lot of needles and pins in it, with tingling in the fingers. On receipt of Dr. Merenda’s report, Dr. Mi-chaelree referred plaintiff to Drs. Leydig and Lottes. Plaintiff immediately saw Dr. Leydig because the pain in her neck, back, right shoulder and right arm was so severe it was difficult to move and her neck was stiff. Dr. Leydig examined her and placed her in Lutheran Hospital for some seven days, where her neck was placed in traction. The equipment used was described as “some type of heavy canvas halter type thing around the chin and back of the head and [with] buckles to strap it down tight and it hangs over the back of the bed with weights on that.” In addition to neck traction, she was given hypos, therapy and massage treatments. When she left the hospital and went home, she still had difficulty moving her right arm, right leg, right shoulder and neck. She was given a Thomas collar to wear, a high plastic type collar to hold her chin up. At home, she was not able to do her house work. She was directed by her physician to fix up a halter-type traction equipment in the doorway of her home to apply traction to her neck. She was also required to use a heat lamp, a heating pad and an electric vibrator and she continued to receive treatments from Dr. Leydig.

In September 1958, her condition got worse and she was sent back to Lutheran Hospital for about a week, where traction was applied to both legs and she received heat treatment and massages. After September 20, 1958, she still received office treatments from Dr. Leydig, to wit, heat treatment and neck traction. Sometimes the diathermy machine and electric vibrator were applied to her neck, back, arms, shoulder and legs. There were periods of temporary improvement. At the time of the trial she could not put her chin down to her chest, or bring her right arm back of her at the waistline or put it over her shoulder. She was able to work only a short time in the early summer of 1958 in the Tax Assessor’s office, first as an extra and then regularly, earning a total of $624. The lifting of the books agitated her right arm and it got worse and caused more pain in her neck, arm and back and she had to quit work and take more traction for her neck and heat and massage treatments for her shoulder and arms.

She cannot iron, clean blinds, wash dishes or attend to many home duties requiring the use of her right arm. At the time of the trial she was using overhead-doorway traction from time to time for her neck and having “to sleep in traction for both legs overnight.” This treatment was also referred to as pelvic traction and the equipment as “kind of a corset or girdle type of a thing over the stomach and down both legs, and there are weights over the foot of the bed.” The traction treatments do not exceed two hours at a time. After such treatments plaintiff suffers from diz[108]*108ziness and a sick stomach; She does not rest well when leg traction is required and she has to take a lot of tranquilizers.

Plaintiff is still under the care of Dr. Leydig. She has her good days and bad ones. In addition to the use of traction, plaintiff has from time to time worn a back brace or corset to stabilize her back and prevent pain and backache, especially when she is tired. All such equipment was prescribed by Dr. Leydig and is still in use. The movement of plaintiff’s head and arm still causes pain.

Dr. Sam Merenda testified that X-rays taken of the plaintiff’s neck the day following her injury, showed that the normal curve of the cervical portion of the spine that bows so that the concave is at the back had been lost and it had been “replaced by even a slight angulation pointed in the opposite direction posterior * * * between the fifth and sixth vertebrae.” Loss of the normal curve could have been caused by muscle spasm due to pain which pulls the neck down, or to an injury to an intervertebral disc. The X-rays he took of plaintiff’s dorsal spine also showed a slight curve to the right, known as scoliosis, a condition such as to make the spine more susceptible to injury.

Dr.

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Hampton v. Rautenstrauch
338 S.W.2d 105 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
338 S.W.2d 105, 83 A.L.R. 2d 1260, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hampton-v-rautenstrauch-mo-1960.