Stutzke v. Consumers Ice & Fuel Co.

136 S.W. 243, 156 Mo. App. 1, 1911 Mo. App. LEXIS 277
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided March 21, 1911·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

CAULFIELD, J.

(after stating the facts).—I. Defendant complains of the instruction given by the trial court on the measure of damages. It contends that said instruction is erroneous because it allows recovery for past loss of earnings beyond the amount specified in the petition. This criticism is based upon the fact that in his petition the plaintiff in stating his damages alleged that as a result of his injury he had suffered loss of wages in the sum of fifteen dollars per week since the date of his injury, while the instruction ^permitted the jury to compensate him for any; loss of wages which they might believe from the evidence he had suffered as a result of his injury. The defendant cites in support of its contention, Smoot v. Kansas City, 194 Mo. 513, 92 S. W. 363; Radtke v. Basket Co., 229 Mo. 1,129 S. W. 508, which in effect hold it to be error to so instruct the jury as to permit them to award recovery on account of a certain element of damage greater than [9] is claimed or shown by the plaintiff in his petition or evidence to have been the amount of his loss in that particular; that is to say, if the plaintiff sees fit to itemize his damages, the jury should be required to confine the award of recovery within the amount specified for the particular element of damage relied upon. In order for an instruction to err in this respect, however, it must appear that its broad language complained of applies to the very thing as to which plaintiff has limited his claim; the instruction must make general that which the plaintiff has made limited. Thus, it has been held by our supreme court that though a petition purports to state the amount which plaintiff has suffered through loss of time, speaking in the past tense, such statement or limitation is to be taken only as applying to the date of the filing of the petition, and if there are other allegations in the petition and proof made thereunder requiring an allowance of damages for loss of time after the time of filing the petition, it is not error for the instruction to permit an award of damages for loss of time over and beyond the amount specified. [Lindsay v. Kansas City, 195 Mo. 166, 93 S. W. 273.] This is manifestly proper. When the petition speaks in the past teuse it necessarily speaks of the period up to the time of its filing, while when the instruction speaks in the past tense it speaks of the larger period up to the time of its being given. The instruction is speaking of a different period than did the petition. It is not allowing recovery for the same loss of time referred to by the petition ' but for a larger loss. It would be manifestly unfair to limit plaintiff’s recovery for a larger loss to an amount specified by him for a smaller loss, if his petition alleges and his proof shows such larger loss. That our supreme court recognizes this and does not disapprove of its ruling made in the Lindsay case is made manifest in the Radtke case by the distinction there drawn between the facts of that case and the facts of the Lindsay case, and by the [10] quotation with approval, in the Radtke case, of language used by this court in making a like distinction in the case of Heinz v. Rys. Co., 122 S. W. 346, 347, 143 Mo. App. 38, which in part is as follows: “The decisions of Tandy v. Transit Co., 178 Mo. 240, 77 S. W. 994, and Lindsay v. K. C. 195 Mo. 166, 93 S. W. 273, relied on by plaintiff, are not in point. In those cases there was testimony tending to prove that injured' party would sustain loss of time in the future—that is, after the filing of the petition and even after trial-—and for this reason it was held instructions on the measure of damages which did not limit recovery to the loss of time alleged in the petition, were not erroneous since that allegation covered only time lost up- to the day the petition was filed. But in the present case, whatever time plaintiff lost and whatever expense he was put to for treatment by a physician had all been lost and incurred prior to the filing of the suit. He testified he had lost two weeks’ time from work as alleged in the petition and had incurred a doctor’s bill of fifty dollars.- There was no chance then for other damages to accrue on account of those items continuing to entail damage after’ the case had been begun.” In the case at bar, like in the Lindsay case, the averments placing plaintiff’s loss at fifteen dollars per week applied only up to the time when the petition was filed. There were, however, additional averments which we deem sufficient to cover loss of wages after the time of filing the petition up- to the time of trial. There was also testimony tending to prove loss of wages after the time of filing the petition and up to the time of the trial, a period of about nine months. This case is then to be distinguished from the cases relied upon by defendant, and similar cases, and is to be governed by the Lindsay Case. The instruction was not erroneous and the action of the trial court in giving it is approved.

[11] II. The defendant contends that the court should have sustained its demurrer to the evidence and that the petition does not state a cause of action.

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Stutzke v. Consumers Ice & Fuel Co., 136 S.W. 243, 156 Mo. App. 1, 1911 Mo. App. LEXIS 277 (Mo. Ct. App. 1911).

136 S.W. 243 (Stutzke v. Consumers Ice & Fuel Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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