Pidcock v. West

102 S.E. 360, 24 Ga. App. 785, 1920 Ga. App. LEXIS 522
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 2, 1920
Docket10838
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 102 S.E. 360 (Pidcock v. West) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pidcock v. West, 102 S.E. 360, 24 Ga. App. 785, 1920 Ga. App. LEXIS 522 (Ga. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Bloodworth, J.

This suit is based upon injuries received by the plaintiff in an automobile collision, in which the car of defendant fan into the car in which the plaintiff was riding. A verdict of $1,500 in favor of plaintiff was returned, and the defendant excepted.

1. The court did not err in failing to give to the jury a requested instruction as follows: “I charge you as a matter of law that there is no presumption of negligence against the defendant, and consequently the burden is on the plaintiff not only to prove injury as alleged, but to prove that the defendant was guilty of some one or more acts of negligence set forth in the petition, and that such negligence of the defendant was the proxi[786]*786mate cause of the injury received by the plaintiff.” The court did charge: “The burden is upon the plaintiff to establish her case. .The plaintiff must recover, if at all, by proving to your satisfaction by a preponderance of the testimony that the defendant was negligent in one or more of the ways in which plaintiff alleges in her petition that the defendant was negligent. She cannot recover for any other or different acts of negligence than those alleged in her petition, and it must appear further that in consequence of this negligence she was injured.” The charge given covered substantially the principle embraced in the request.

2. Complaint is made that the verdict “was so grossly excessive as to conclusively suggest bias and prejudice in favor of the plaintiff.” To this contention we cannot assent. The record contains no proof of prejudice or bias, and the amount of the damages awarded would not justify such a conclusion. Plaintiff was in the car belonging to Mr. West. She swore: “My left arm was knocked out of place and my hand all mashed, and a place cut in my arm on the under side. My wrist-joint was dislocated, and a bone in my hand was broken or crushed. The gash was cut across my wrist. I came on to town with my son in his car, and got Dr. Harrell to give me medical assistance. He put my arm in a brace and bandaged it from my elbow to my fingers. I wore my arm in those splints a little over five weeks. For three months my suffering was intense. Of course it was not so bad all the time, but for four or five weeks, though, it was pretty intense. The suffering has not entirely disappeared, and at times I suffer a great deal, and have had but little use of my arm since. I have not entirely recovered the use of my left hand. It is very tender to work in any way. . . As a result from the injury I can not do my sewing. I can sweep' just a little. I have to do the sweeping with my right hand. If there is much weight to the cooking utensils, I cannot handle them with my left hand. If I do I drop them.” The physician who attended Mrs. West swore: “I found the wrist dislocated, cut across here [the doctor indicating]; do not remember which pressure, a gash about two inches long, and her arm was bruised, and the arm up here was bruised pretty well. I could not detect at that time that there were any broken bones. The wrist was dislocated and some of the bones were out of place, and after that [787]*787I decided that there must have been some of those little bones broken. Now I am not an X-ray, but my opinion is that they are. I made an examination of the wrist abput a week ago and thought that I could detect one little bone that was broken or bruised. No, sir, the injury has not entirely recovered. In my opinion as a physician the injury is permanent. I cannot say to what extent it will disable her from the use of her left hand. I am a practicing physician and have been for about twenty years. During that twenty years I have had ordinary experience of practicing medicine and treating wounds of this nature. Based upon that experience my opinion is that this injury is permanent.” Under this evidence we cannot say that the verdict is so large as to "shock the moral sense.” See Realty Bond & Mortgage Co. v. Harley, 19 Ga. App. 186 (2), 187 (91 S. E. 254), and cit.; Atkinson v. Taylor, 13 Ga. App. 100 (1) (78 S. E. 830),

3. Eor no reason assigned did the court err in permitting “the plaintiff to make physical demonstration of her alleged injury,” or in making the same in the manner in which it was made. See Civil Code (1910), § 4644 (4); Richmond & Danville R. Co. v. Childress, 82 Ga. 719 (9 S. E. 602, 3 L. R. A. 808, 14 Am. St. R. 189). In this connection see also Macon & Birmingham Ry. Co. v. Ross, 133 Ga. 83 (1) (65 S. E. 146), and cit.; Temples v. Central Ry. Co., 19 Ga. App. 308 (5), 313 (91 S. E. 502), and cit.

4. It is alleged that the court erred in admitting the “ Carlisle Mortality Table,” over the objections that in the absence of an allegation and proof of reduced earning capacity, and of a permanent injury, it was not admissible; that “it was immaterial and irrelevant;” that "plaintiff had not charged her injury to be permanent;” and that “there was no proof of' the value of her services.” As against these objections the court properly admitted the mortality table in evidence. In Powell v. Augusta and Summerville R. Co., 77 Ga. 200 (3 S. E. 759), Chief Justice Bleckley said: "Where there is evidence tending to show that that state of impaired health and diminished ability to labor attributable to the injury may endure through life, the mortuary tables are admissible in evidence to aid the jury in dealing with the element of time involved in their computation of the damages. There was such evidence in this ease, and the tables were, there[788]*788fore, relevant. One who is to live long in pain is more damaged than one who has to endure suffering but for a brief term. Test this by applying it to two cases and contrasting them, the first in which pain is to last only for a day, and the second for twenty years. It may be thought that the loss of ability to labor is not pain, but this is a mistake. There is no greater blessing of life than ability to labor, even though the proceeds may belong to another. It is better for happiness, as well as for ...virtue, to work for nothing than to be idle. A physical injury that destroys the power of a human being to labor is one of the most serious injuries that is possible to inflict. True, it is not to be measured by pecuniary earnings where the suit is by a married woman, for such earnings, as a general rule, belong to the husband, and the right of action for their loss is in him, but the wife herself has such an interest in her working capacity as that she can recover something for its destruction, and what she is to be allowed ought to be more or less according to the length of time during which her privation is likely to comtinue. Such privation may well be classed with pain and suffering, especially where it involves the breaking up of established habits. To man or woman accustomed to work, enforced idleness is torture.” The Powell case was a suit for pain and suffering to the wife, and there was no claim for diminished earning capacity.

5. The following objections were urged as to the charge of the court in reference to compensation for future pain and suffering: “Because the plaintiff had not alleged her injuries to be permanent. Because there was no proof that her injuries were permanent.

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Bluebook (online)
102 S.E. 360, 24 Ga. App. 785, 1920 Ga. App. LEXIS 522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pidcock-v-west-gactapp-1920.