New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad v. Thornton

172 So. 2d 560, 252 Miss. 49, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1075
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1965
DocketNo. 43314
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 172 So. 2d 560 (New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad v. Thornton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad v. Thornton, 172 So. 2d 560, 252 Miss. 49, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1075 (Mich. 1965).

Opinion

Kyle, P. J.

This case is before us on appeal by New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad Company and Lias Thigpen, an employee of the Railroad Company, defendants in the court below, from a judgment of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Jones County, rendered in favor of Mrs. Melba Thornton, plaintiff, in an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff as the result of the appellant .Railroad [53]*53Company’s two and one-half ton truck, which was being driven by the defendant, Lias Thigpen, colliding with a 1959 Ford automobile in which the plaintiff was riding; and which was being driven by the plaintiff’s mother-in-law, Mrs. T. C. (Jane) Thornton.

The accident occurred on December 8, 1960, at approximately 5:30 o’clock P.M. at a point near the center of the intersection of Teresa Street and U. S. Highway No. 11 North and State Highway No. 15, approximately 300 feet east of the railroad underpass, in the City of Laurel. The 1959 Ford automobile in which the plaintiff was riding at the time of the accident had passed under the overhead bridge and was proceeding northwardly on U. S. Highway No. 11 in its own north-bound lane of travel. The two and one-half ton truck which collided with the Ford automobile was proceeding southwardly on Highway No. 11, and the accident occurred when the truck crossed over the center of the highway and skidded against the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding as the driver of the automobile brought her vehicle to a stop in her own lane of travel immediately west of a traffic island in the center of the highway intersection. The proof shows that a drizzling rain was falling and the pavement was wet at the time the accident occurred, and there was heavy traffic on both highways approaching the intersection.

The plaintiff alleged in her declaration that the defendant Thigpen was driving his truck at a highly dangerous rate of speed as he approached the intersection; that the defendant negligently failed to keep a proper lookout for other motorists using the highway, and negligently failed to have his truck under proper control; and that, because of such excessive speed and such negligent failure to keep a proper lookout and have his vehicle under proper control, the defendant lost control of his truck and negligently caused his truck to slide sideways into the northbound lane of travel and collide with the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding.

[54]*54The case was before us on a former appeal, in Cause No. 42,735, wherein the Court reversed a judgment for $33,417 rendered in favor of the plaintiff and remanded the case for a new trial because of error of the lower court in granting a peremptory instruction in favor of the plaintiff on the issue of liability. See New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad Co. v. Mrs. Melba Thornton, 247 Miss. 616, 156 So. 2d 598 (1963).

The opinion rendered on the first appeal contains a brief summary of the testimony offered on behalf of the respective parties during the first trial. The testimony offered on behalf of the respective parties during the second trial, as shown by the record that we now have before us, was substantially the same as that offered on behalf of the respective parties during the first trial. All issues as to liability and damages were submitted to the jury, which returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $42,500. The defendants’ motion for a new trial was overruled, and a judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff for the above stated amount. From that judgment the defendants have prosecuted this appeal.

The appellants’ attorneys have assigned and argued four points as grounds for reversal of the judgment of the lower court:

1. That the court erred in granting the plaintiff’s instructions which appear on pages 31, 32, 33, 34, 40 and 44 of the record, and which, in the opinion of the appellants’ attorneys, were equivalent to a peremptory instruction on liability.

2. That the court erred in erroneously instructing the jury that they might, in assessing damages, compensate the plaintiff for all “substantial disfigurement resulting from physical injuries, if any.”

3. That the court erred in permitting the appellee and the appellee’s brother-in-law, who was 16 years old at the time of the accident, over the appellants’ ob[55]*55jection, to estimate the speed of the appellants’ truck at 40 miles per hour; also, that the court erred in prejudiciously restricting the appellants’ effort to show by the witness Reddock that there had been other vehicles, on other occasions, which had skidded at the point on the paved street where the blacktop joined the concrete, such evidence being admissible to show the dangerous character of the place where the wreck occurred.

4. That the verdict of the jury was grossly excessive and the trial court erred in overruling the appellants’ motion for a new trial.

We have carefully reviewed the instructions complained of in the appellants’ first assignment of error, and we find no error in the instructions of sufficient importance to justify a reversal of the judgment of the lower court. We think the court erred in granting the instruction complained of in the appellants’ second assignment of error which appears on page 37 of the record, in the form requested. In that instruction the jury was told that, if they should find for the plaintiff, in the assessment of damages they might take into consideration, in addition to other elements of damages, “all substantial disfigurement resulting from physical injuries, if any.” In our opinion there is no substantial evidence in the record to support a finding that the plaintiff suffered a permanent disfigurement as a result of the sprained ankle or the exploratory operation hereinafter referred to, which was performed by Dr. E. J. Holder on November 14, 1961; and the disfigurement clause in the above mentioned instruction should have been stricken before the instruction was given. Vascoe v. Ford, 212 Miss. 372, 54 So. 2d 541 (1951). But the error complained of, in our opinion, was not of such importance as to justify a reversal of the judgment.

We are also of the opinion that the errors complained of in the appellants’ third assignment of [56]*56errors are not of sufficient importance to justify a reversal of the judgment.

We think the amount of damages awarded by the jury, however, is so grossly excessive, in view of the nature of the injuries complained of, as to evince bias and prejudice on the part of the jury, and the judgment appealed from must be reversed on that account, unless the appellee agrees to enter a remittitur of $12,500, thereby reducing the amount of the judgment to $30,000.

Two doctors testified on behalf of the plaintiff concerning the plaintiff’s injuries.

Dr. Gr. E. Holder, Director of the Masonite Hospital and Clinic, testified that the plaintiff, according to the hospital record, came into the out-patient department of the clinic at 7:30 P.M. on December 8, 1960, and stated to the nurse in charge that she had been involved in an automobile accident. The plaintiff was examined by the nurse on duty and her blood pressure was taken.

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Related

Jones v. Hatchett
504 So. 2d 198 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1987)
White v. Thomason
310 So. 2d 914 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1975)
New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad v. Thornton
191 So. 2d 547 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
172 So. 2d 560, 252 Miss. 49, 1965 Miss. LEXIS 1075, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-orleans-northeastern-railroad-v-thornton-miss-1965.