Seeing Denver Co. v. Morgan

66 Colo. 565
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedSeptember 15, 1919
DocketNo. 9266
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 66 Colo. 565 (Seeing Denver Co. v. Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seeing Denver Co. v. Morgan, 66 Colo. 565 (Colo. 1919).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Allen:

This is an action to recover damages .for personal injuries. The plaintiff below obtained judgment, and defendant brings the cause here for review.

The complaint alleges, and the evidence shows, that on May 7, 1916, the defendant was engaged in the business of carrying passengers for hire in automobiles between the towns of Boulder and Nederland, in Boulder County, and that, on the date above named, the plaintiff was a passenger for hire in one of such automobiles, which was then being driven and operated by an employee of the defendant. It is further alleged and proven that while plaintiff was such passenger, the automobile, while ascending a hill, suddenly went backwards some distance down the hill and turned on its side, thereby injuring the plaintiff.

To the complaint, the defendant interposed a motion to make the same more specific and certain in certain particulars relating to the negligence of the defendant and the con[567]*567dition of the automobile. The motion was overruled, and the first assignment of error argued is that the court erred in overruling the motion.

We find no prejudicial error in the trial court’s action in the respect above mentioned. Relating to the matters referred to in the motion, the complaint contains the following allegations:

“3. That at the time of the grievances herein mentioned and for a considerable! length of time theretofore, said agent and employee had the sole, exclusive and complete charge of said automobile, and the operation and driving thereof, and this plaintiff further avers that said agent and employee, was, during all of said time, reckless in his management of said • automobile, and wholly incompetent and unfit to be entrusted with such care, charge, or operation of said automobile, as was at all times well known to said defendant, or in the exercise of reasonable care should or ought to have been known thereto, but that the same was wholly unknown to this plaintiff.
“This plaintiff further avers that at the time when he received said injuries as aforesaid, and for a long time prior thereto, said automobile was greatly out of repair, in that a certain lever thereof, controlling the flow of steam and furnishing the power therefor, frequently and without being touched or manipulated in any manner by said agent or employee or the driver in charge of said automobile or any one else, passed from what is called the high speed thereof to what is called the reverse speed thereof, and that when said lever did so pass from said high speed to said reverse speed, it then and there instantaneously caused said car to change its direction and instead of proceeding forward, caused it immediately to proceed backward and without any warning whatsoever. That during all of said time, the condition of said car as aforesaid was well known to said defendant, or in the exercise of reasonable care, ought or should have been known to it, but that the same was at all times wholly unknown to this plaintiff.”

[568]*568Motions to malee pleadings more definite and certain are addressed to the discretion of the court, and rulings granting or denying such motions are not reviewable except for abuse of discretion. 4 Corpus Juris 801, sec. 2758; Mulligan v. Smith, 32 Colo. 404, 76 Pac. 1063. In our opinion, the particulars of the defendant’s negligence are sufficiently set forth in the complaint so as to preclude error in overruling a motion to make more definite and certain.

The plaintiff in error, defendant below, complains of a part of Instruction No. 3, and, in the assignments of error, claims that it “placed upon defendant the burden of proof that it was not guilty of negligence.” It is also contended that, in this respect, the instruction is in conflict with Instruction No. 1.

Instruction No. 1 is conceded to be proper, and relative to the burden of proof, instructs the jury as follows:

“The burden is on the plaintiff to establish his case by a preponderance of the evidence, and if he has done so, your verdict should be for the plaintiff; otherwise your verdict should be for the defendant.”

Instruction No. 3 reads as follows:

“The uncontradicted evidence shows that the plaintiff was a passenger for hire on an automobile operated by an employee of the defendant, and that while ascending a hill the automobile suddenly went backward some distance down the hill and turned on its side, thereby injuring the plaintiff. These circumstances raise the presumption that the accident occurred through negligence on the part of the defendant, and the burden is thereby cast upon the defendant to show the absence of such negligence on the part of the defendant and its driver, or that such negligence did not proximately cause the accident. Your verdict, therefore, should be for the plaintiff unless you find from the evidence that the defendant and its driver were not negligent, or if they were negligent that their negligence did not proximately cause" the accident, in which event your verdict should be for the defendant.”

[569]*569No complaint is made of the recital of facts, or of the statement, contained in the instruction, regarding the presumption of negligence, but it is contended that by this instruction, above quoted, the burden of proof was shifted upon the defendant. This contention cannot be upheld. The instruction does not relieve the plaintiff of the burden resting upon him, on the whole case, of showing negligence on the part of the defendant, and therefore it does-not conflict with Instruction No. 1 upon the matter of the burden of proof. It merely requires the defendant to rebut a prima facie case made against it. While the burden of proof, in the sense that the phrase means “the necessity of establishing the existence of a certain fact by evidence which preponderates” (16 Cyc. 926), rests on the plaintiff throughout the trial, yet, as stated in 29 Cyc. 599, “where plaintiff’s evidence establishes a prima facie case of negligence, the burden rests on the defendant to overcome or rebut the presumption of negligence so established.” Instruction No. 3 does no more than to correctly apply the rule last mentioned, and is in accord with the decisions of this court. Wall v. Livesay, 6 Colo. 465, 469; Sanderson v. Frazier, 8 Colo. 79, 85, 5 Pac. 632, 54 Am. Rep. 544; C. S. & C. C. Ry. Co. v. Petit, 37 Colo. 326, 329, 86 Pac. 121.

Error is assigned to the trial court’s action in admitting the testimony of a physician to the effect that professional services rendered by him to plaintiff since the commencement of the action were of the value of $100.00; that it was necessary, in order to relieve the plaintiff from certain effects resulting from the injuries, that an operation be performed; that the reasonable value of services for such an operation would be $150; that other expenses connected therewith would be $100; that the operation would incapacitate plaintiff from performing labor for eight weeks; that plaintiff would suffer pain therefrom, and that administering an anaesthetic would be dangerous. It is contended, in effect that by reason of this testimony the defendant was required to defend against claims for damages of which it had no notice from the complaint. In this connection, the [570]*570defendant relies upon the general rule referred to in Pueblo v. Griffin, 10 Colo. 366, 15 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
66 Colo. 565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seeing-denver-co-v-morgan-colo-1919.