United Verde Copper Co. v. Wiley

183 P. 737, 20 Ariz. 525, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 202
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 22, 1919
DocketCivil No. 1651
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 183 P. 737 (United Verde Copper Co. v. Wiley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Verde Copper Co. v. Wiley, 183 P. 737, 20 Ariz. 525, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 202 (Ark. 1919).

Opinion

ROSS, J.

The appellee, while in the employment of appellant as a miner in the hazardous occupation of mining in one of its shafts, "was injured [as he alleges in his complaint] by an accident arising out of and in the course of said labor, service and employment, and due to a condition or conditions of such occupation or employment, and without any fault or negligence on his part in the following manner: . . . That,' as a result of the aforementioned accident, plaintiff’s right eye has been totally destroyed, and plaintiff has been compelled to have same removed, and an artificial eye put in its place. That he has had his eyesight injured permanently, and his ability to labor permanently diminished — all to the great damage of the plaintiff in the sum of $15,000.” He also alleges the expenditure of $250 for surgical and medical aid, care, nursing and attention.

The plaintiff bases his action upon the employers’ liability law, Revised Statutes of Arizona of 1913, title 14, chapter 6. Demurrers to the complaint, special and general, were overruled, and the trial was had upon the issues made by the general denial in the answer and the allegation that the appellee was blind in his right eye at the time he entered the service of the appellant and on the date of the alleged injury, to wit, June 18, 1917. A verdict and judgment was had for $7,500.

The first contention made by appellant mining company is that the employers’ liability law, under which the action was brought, is unconstitutional, as being in violation of the "equal protection” and "due process” clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution. While this contention had been raised in this court and several times overruled (Inspiration Cons. Copper Co. v. Mendez, 19 Ariz. 151, 166 Pac. 281, 1183; Superior & Pittsburg Copper Co. v. Tomich, 19 Ariz. 182, 165 Pac. 1101, 1185; Ariz. Copper Co. v. Burciaga, ante, p. 85, 177 Pac. 29), it was not finally and definitely laid to rest until June 9, 1919, when the supreme court of the United States, in the Mendez, Tomich and three other eases, appealed to it from the federal district court, held the employers’ liability law was not unconstitutional because it burdened, in certain hazardous occupations, the employer without fault, in the first instance, with the duty of compensating an injured employee, or in case of his death, his dependents, when the injury or death was not caused by the negligence of the employee. Ariz. Copper Co. v. Hammer, 250 [527]*527U. S. —, 39 Sup. Ct. Rep. 553, 63 L. Ed. 636. The overruling of the demurrer that raised the unconstitutionality of the law was proper, and the assignments based thereon are without merit.

It is next contended that there is no evidence to sustain the verdict, because it is not shown that appellee’s earning power has been lessened by the loss of one of his eyes, and that therefore no damage was proved. Under this assignment it is insisted that the measure of damages to which appellee was entitled was the difference between his earning capacity before and after his injury, and that, if he could earn as much after as before the eye was lost, he could recover nothing. This contention is certainly a novel one, and we think without merit either in fact or law.

At the time appellee was injured, June 18, 1917, he was being paid $5.90 per day. Six months thereafter, at the trial, his earning capacity was $50 per month. His life expectancy at the time he was injured was 28.18 years. If the disparity in earning capacity continue, the loss from his injury may well equal or exceed the judgment of $7,500.

There was testimony on behalf of the appellant that it and other mines employed one-eyed miners, but one of the appellant’s foremen admitted that, as between two applicants, in all other respects equal, he would employ the one with two eyes, and stated that he considered that the loss of an eye impaired a man’s earning capacity. The undisputed expert testimony was to the effect that the loss of an eye diminished the power to accurately estimate and gauge distances from 60 to 75 per cent. A mere statement of the injury — the loss of an eye and its replacement with a glass substitute — indicates its permanency.

It is not true as a question of law that the measure of damages is the difference between appellee’s earning power before and after his injury. Under the general allegation of his complaint, that he was injured and as a result thereof lost an eye, he was entitled to damages for mental and physical pain and’ suffering caused by the injury and extraction of his eye. The rule is stated in 17 O. J. 1011, as follows:

“No allegation as of special damage is necessary to recover for mental suffering, where this is allowed as an element of damages, since such suffering is inseparably connected with and attends personal injuries. Pain and suffering need not [528]*528be specially pleaded, where inseparable from, and a natural consequence of, the physical injury.”

The learned trigl judge, perhaps laboring under the impression that in this kind of action no recovery could be had for pain and suffering, so advised the jury. In so doing he committed error, but it was error in favor of appellant. The rule of damages, as announced by this court in Arizona Copper Co. v. Burciaga, ante, p. 85, 177 Pac. 29, and affirmed in Arizona Copper Co. v. Hammer, supra, is that it includes “all loss to the employee caused by the accident, not merely in the way of earning capacity, but of disfigurement and bodily or mental pain.”

There is no claim that the verdict was rendered through prejudice or passion, and there is nothing in the record to indicate that such was the case. That being so, we think the rule laid down by Chancellor KENT in Coleman v. Southwick, 9 Johns. (N. Y.) 45, 6 Am. Dec. 253, is controlling. He said:

“The damages, therefore, must be so excessive as to strike mankind, at first blush, as being beyond all measure, unreasonable, and outrageous, and such as manifestly show the jury to have been actuated by passion, partiality, prejudice, or corruption. In short, the damages must be flagrantly outrageous and extravagant, or the court cannot undertake to draw the line, for they have no standard by which to ascertain the excess. ’ ’

After quoting Chancellor KENT as above, in Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. De Vore, 43 Okl. 534, L. R. A. 1915F, 21, 143 Pac. 864, the court made the following comment, in which we fully concur:'

“We think this rule is sound, for the reason the jury and the trial judge have a much better opportunity than do the appellate judges to measure the actual damages suffered by the plaintiff and the amount which would compensate him for the injury. They have an opportunity of seeing the plaintiff and to discern his manner of testifying, his intelligence and capacity, to note his physical condition, and many other living evidences bearing upon the issue, including all the attending circumstances, of the larger part of which the appellate court is deprived. The jury, thus being in possession of all the facts and circumstances, is required to pass upon this issue as an issue of fact,' under an appropriate charge of the court as to the law. Their solemn finding, returned into court and [529]*529approved by the trial court, should not be disturbed by this court, unless it comes within the rule hereinbefore laid down.

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Bluebook (online)
183 P. 737, 20 Ariz. 525, 1919 Ariz. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-verde-copper-co-v-wiley-ariz-1919.