Mahoning Valley Railway Co. v. Van Alstine

77 Ohio St. (N.S.) 395
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1908
DocketNo. 10432
StatusPublished

This text of 77 Ohio St. (N.S.) 395 (Mahoning Valley Railway Co. v. Van Alstine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mahoning Valley Railway Co. v. Van Alstine, 77 Ohio St. (N.S.) 395 (Ohio 1908).

Opinion

Spear, J.

It will be observed that the question of difference is not whether or not the acts of negligence alleged and relied upon in the two actions were identically the same, but rather whether or not the cause of action in the case upon trial was the identical cause of action set up in the first suit and adjudicated by the final judgment therein. [399]*399It is the contention of counsel for the plaintiff in' error that not only were the negligent acts identically the same but that the causes of action were also identically the same, and that, this being so, the prosecuting of the deceased woman’s cause by her • administrator in the revived action, and the final judgment and satisfaction thereof, must have- precisely the same legal effect as though Mrs. Baird had lived and had herself prosecuted her action to final judgment, because the administrator, being her personal representative, must be held to have succeeded to all rights which she had, and to stand in all respects regarding that action as she did before suit- had she herself recovered judgment in the case. Nor, say the learned counsel, could the administrator, by disclaimer, or by any- attempt to waive his right to recover any item of damages which he was entitled to recover in that action, limit the effect of the final judgment as a bar to a second action, the causes of action being, as before stated, identically the same. So that the disclaimer by the administrator before trial of all claims for damages made by the deceased in her petition except for pain and suffering endured by her from the time of the accident until her death cannot have the effect of permitting any omitted grounds of damage to be tried in another action, for a party must unite all his claims for damage arising from the same transaction in one suit against the party and cannot split them up and try some in one case and others in a subsequent case. And this view was sustained by the court of common pleas in its holding in sustaining [400]*400the'demurrer to the reply and rendering judgment against the plaintiff.

It is, however, the contention of defendant in error that Alice M. Baird had a common law cause of action existing at the time of her decease, which by the statute survived and might be prosecuted as it was prosecuted after revivor by her administrator to recover such damages and' such only as she herself had sustained by reason of the injury for the benefit only of her estate, while the second action, although by the same administrator, was not in any sense for the injury she had sustained, not for pain or suffering, not for the benefit of her estate, but solely and only for the benefit of her next of kin, whose loss was caused by her death and whose damages were to be measured by the pecuniary loss which they had sustained by reason of such death. And this contention was sustained by the circuit court in its judgment of reversal.

Which of these contentions is the law of the case is the question presented to this court.

By the rules of the common law the action pending at the time of Mrs. Baird’s death, and her cause of action, would have abated by reason of her death, but the provisions of sections 4975 and 5144, Revised Statutes, changed the common law rule in those respects. Those sections are as follows: “Sec. 4975. In addition to the causes of action which survive at common law, causes of action for mesne profits, or for injuries to the person or property, or for deceit or fraud, shall also survive; and the action may be brought notwithstanding the death of the person entitled or liable [401]*401to the same.” “Sec. 5144. Except as otherwise provided, no action or proceeding pending in any court shall abate by the death of either or both of the parties thereto, except an action for libel, slander, malicious prosecution, for a nuisance, or against a justice of the peace for misconduct in office, which shall abate by the death of either party.” The right of the administrator, therefore, to recover in the revived action rested upon the common law right of action inhering in the injured person, and the preservation of that right in the administrator by virtue of the sections above quoted. The right to maintain the action brought by the administrator in the interest of the next of kin rests upon sections 6134 and 6135, Revised Statutes, the pertinent parts of which are as follows: “Sec. 6134. Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, then and in every such case the corporation which, or the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued, or the administrator or executor of the estate of such person, as such administrator or executor, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to murder in the first or second degree, or manslaughter; and when the action is. against such administrator or executor the damages recovered shall be a valid claim against the estate of such [402]*402deceased person.” “Sec. 6135. Every such action shall be for the exclusive benefit of the wife, or husband, and children, or if theré be neither of them, then of the parents and next of kin of the person whose death shall be so caused; and it shall be brought in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person; and in every action the jury may give such damages, not exceeding in any case ten thousand dollars, as they may think proportioned to the pecuniary injury resulting from such death, to the persons respectively for whose benefit such action shall be brought. Every such action shall be commenced within two years after the death of such deceased person; * * * the amount received by such personal representative, whéther by settlement or otherwise, shall be apportioned among the beneficiaries, unless adjusted between themselves, by the court making the appointment in such manner as shall be fair and equitable, having reference to the age and condition of such beneficiaries and the laws of descent and distribution of personal estates, left by persons dying intestate.”

The question in our case, therefore, centers around the construction to be placed upon and the effect to be given to the foregoing sections of the statute. Did the lawmakers, by this legislation, intend to preserve from abatement the right of the administrator to recover damages for the benefit of the estate where the party injured died from the effect of the wrongful act and as a consequence of it, and also to create a new and independent right of action to be enforced by the administrator for the benefit of the next of kin [403]*403with the right to recover damages for their pecuniary loss sustained by the decease of the injured person? It is the insistence of counsel that such was not the intention. The sections quoted, it is urged, do not at least in language undertake to preserve from abatement causes of action for injuries to the person where the injured person dies directly in consequence of the injuries inflicted, and when it is remembered that in the same act provision is made for a right of recovery for the benefit of those named in section 6135, it becomes apparent that the general assembly only intended to preserve causes of action where the injured person died from a cause other than that of the injuries inflicted.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Whitford v. . the Panama Railroad Company
23 N.Y. 465 (New York Court of Appeals, 1861)
Littlewood v. . Mayor, Etc., of New York
89 N.Y. 24 (New York Court of Appeals, 1882)
Hedrick v. Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Co.
30 P. 714 (Washington Supreme Court, 1892)
Bowes v. City of Boston
29 N.E. 633 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1892)
Legg v. Britton
64 Vt. 652 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1890)
Putman v. Southern Pacific Co.
27 P. 1033 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1891)
Holton v. Daly
106 Ill. 131 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1882)
Martin v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.
49 P. 605 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1897)
Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad v. Phillips
64 Miss. 693 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1887)
Brown v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.
77 N.W. 748 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1899)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
77 Ohio St. (N.S.) 395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mahoning-valley-railway-co-v-van-alstine-ohio-1908.