Love v. Detroit, Jackson & Chicago Railroad

135 N.W. 963, 170 Mich. 1, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 787
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 1912
DocketDocket No. 171
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 135 N.W. 963 (Love v. Detroit, Jackson & Chicago Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Love v. Detroit, Jackson & Chicago Railroad, 135 N.W. 963, 170 Mich. 1, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 787 (Mich. 1912).

Opinion

Blair, J.

This action was brought in the circuit court for the county of Washtenaw by Clyde Elton Love, as administrator of the estate of Frank Emerick Love, deceased, for the alleged negligent killing of said deceased by defendant railroad company. Deceased, at the time of his death, was five years and five months of age. The administrator, plaintiff in this suit, and his wife are the father and mother, respectively, of said deceased, and his sole and only heirs at law and distributees. Deceased came to his death on the 14th day of May, 1909, while riding on a tricycle in an attempt to cross the tracks of the city line, so called, of the said defendant railroad company, in the city of Ann Arbor, at the intersection of Monroe and Twelfth streets. The accident occurred at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of said day, or shortly thereafter. The deceased was taken to the Homeopathic hospital in the city of Ann Arhor, where he remained alive until about midnight of the same day, or about eight hours after the accident. The deceased had been in company with his mother on a visit. The mother allowed or permitted the boy to go toward and across the railroad tracks, with the location of which she was entirely familiar, and where cars passed every few minutes, and to precede her by two blocks or more, and was on the opposite side of the street car track from him at the time of the accident. The negligence claimed by the plaintiff as a basis for the cause of action was:

(a) That the car was running at an excessive rate of speed contrary to the ordinance j (6) neglect to provide [4]*4proper safeguards in the way of a fender; (c) inexperienced and incapable servants.

This action was based on the survival act (section 10117, 3 Comp. Laws). The jury, after the charge of the court, brought in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for “the sum of $2,000 for the suffering of Frank Emerick Love from 4 o’clock p. m. until 12 o’clock, and $2,500 for his expectancy in life for 37 years, being a total of $4,500.”

Briefly, it is the claim of the defendant in this cause that the verdict in said cause should be reversed because:

(1) The court should have directed a verdict for the defendant in accordance with the motion to direct a verdict; (2) the court erred in admitting testimony as appears by assignments of error 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8; (3) because the court erred in refusing to give defendant’s request to charge, assignments of error 10 to 18, inclusive; (4) because the court erred in his charge to the jury as set forth in assignments of error 19 to 28, inclusive; (5) because the court erred in refusing to grant defendant’s motion for a new trial; (6) because the court failed to assign any reasons for his refusal to grant a new trial.

1. The motion for a directed verdict presented the question whether, where, as in this case, the parents are the only heirs at law and distributees of the child’s estate and as such entitled to the whole amount recovered, the contributory negligence of the mother would bar recovery by the father as administrator. The circuit judge held that it would not, and we have now to consider the correctness of his determination.

The decisions of this court have established that :

The survival act (section 10117, 3 Comp. Laws) applies to rights or causes of action as well as to actions. Rogers v. Windoes, 48 Mich. 628 (12 N. W. 882); Racho v. City of Detroit, 90 Mich. 92 (51 N. W. 360); Roberts v. City of Detroit, 102 Mich. 64 (60 N. W. 450, 27 L. R. A. 572); Sweetland v. Railway Co., 117 Mich. 829 (75 N. W. 1066, 43 L. R. A. 568).

A right of action is as much property as is a corporeal possession, and, under the survival act, vests at once in the [5]*5injured person upon the inflicting of the negligent injury, and, upon his subsequent death, becomes an asset of his estate to be collected and distributed in accordance with the administration statutes. Berger v. Jacobs, 21 Mich. 215; Power v. Harlow, 57 Mich. 107, 111 (23 N. W. 606); In re Joslyn’s Estate, 117 Mich. 442 (75 N. W. 930); Carbary v. Railway, 157 Mich. 683 (122 N. W. 367); Olivier v. Railway Co., 134 Mich. 367 (96 N. W. 434, 104 Am. St. Rep. 607, 3 Am. & Eng. Ann. Cas. 53).

“A right of action for personal injuries not resulting in the death of the injured person, survives after his death [3 Comp. Laws, § 10117], and a suit for his damages, begun by him, may be continued by his personal representative after his death, with the same effect, according to the same rules, and to recover the same damages, as if he were living and prosecuting his action in person. Neither the death act, so called (3 Comp. Laws, § 10427), nor Act No. 89, Pub. Acts 1905, affect such a right of action or have any application to the manner in which it shall be pursued.” Rouse v. Railways Co., 164 Mich. 475 (129 N. W. 719).

An administrator bringing the action in the first instance, as in the present case, is entitled to recover the same damages that the deceased could have recovered had he lived to bring the suit to a successful issue. Olivier v. Railway Co., 138 Mich. 242 (101 N. W. 530).

A child of the tender years of plaintiff’s intestate cannot be charged with contributory negligence, and the negligence of his parents cannot affect his recovery. Shippy v. Village of Au Sable, 85 Mich. 280 (48 N. W. 584); Boehm v. City of Detroit, 141 Mich. 277 (104 N. W. 626); Johnson v. City of Bay City, 164 Mich. 251 (129 N. W. 29).

“A right of action is as much property as is a corporeal possession and, in the case of a minor, is protected by the law in the same way and under the same securities. The mother could not release it even for full consideration and by the most formal instrument; much less, therefore, could she, by mere word of mouth when not under oath, or otherwise chargeable with responsibility, destroy his [6]*6right of action by her admissions.” Power v. Harlow, 57 Mich. 107, 111 (23 N. W. 606).

It appears to us to be a logical and necessary inference from the above principles that the contributory negligence of the mother, if proved, which we are far from holding in this case, would not affect the right to recover. Warren v. Railway, 70 N. H. 352 (47 Atl. 735); Wymore v. Mahaska County, 78 Iowa, 396 (43 N. W. 264, 6 L. R. A. 545, 16 Am. St. Rep. 449); Bradshaw v. Frazier, 113 Iowa, 579 (85 N. W. 752, 55 L. R. A. 258, 86 Am. St. Rep. 394); Westerfield v. Levis Bros., 43 La. Ann. 63 (9 South. 52); Norfolk, etc., R. Co. v. Groseclose’s Adm’r, 88 Va. 267 (13 S. E. 454, 29 Am. St. Rep. 718); Wilmot v. McPadden, 78 Conn. 276 (61 Atl. 1069); Southern R. Co. v. Shipp, 169 Ala. 327 (53 South. 150); Ploof v. Traction Co., 70 Vt. 509 (41 Atl. 1017, 43 L. R. A. 108); Nashville Lumber Co. v. Busbee (Ark.), 139 S. W. 301.

The case of Feldman v. Railway, 162 Mich. 486 (127 N. W. 687), was under the death act, so called (sections 10427, 10428, 3 Comp. Laws), where—

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Bluebook (online)
135 N.W. 963, 170 Mich. 1, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 787, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-detroit-jackson-chicago-railroad-mich-1912.