Young v. Cumberland Grocery Co.

15 Tenn. App. 89, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 78
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 28, 1932
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 15 Tenn. App. 89 (Young v. Cumberland Grocery Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Cumberland Grocery Co., 15 Tenn. App. 89, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 78 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

CROWNOVER, J.

This action is incorrectly styled; it should be styled, Cumberland Grocery Company, plaintiff in error, against Mrs. H. G. Young and Nannie Young, defendants in error, as the Youngs obtained judgments in the lower court.

These are actions by mother and daughter for personal injuries received in an automobile accident caused by the collision of their automobile with a truck owned and operated by the Cumberland Grocery Company, and were tried together because their injuries were the result of the same accident.

On May 31, 1927, Mrs. H. G. Young and her minor daughter, Nannie Young, were riding in a Ford sedan on the State Highway between Double Springs in Putnam county and Gainesboro in Jackson county, Tennessee. At a point about ten miles from Gainesboro, while rounding a right hand curve, their car was struck by a truck owned by the Cumberland Grocery Compaq and driven by its agent. Their automobile was' on its right hand side of the curve and the truck approached on the same side of the road from the opposite direction. The two vehicles had a head-on collision. The truck driver was looking back at people on the porch of a near-by house.

*91 Mrs. Young was seriously and permanently injured; lier collar bone was broken, which has never united; several ribs were broken and her shoulder and spine were injured. She suffered much pain.

Miss Nannie Young received a cut on the arm and a blow on the small of her back which she testified affected her menstruations and resulted in loss of weight.

Defendant Grocery Company paid Mrs. Young’s doctor’s bill and the account for repairs on her automobile, and she executed a written agreement releasing defendant from all liability for damages for personal injuries and damage to her automobile.

Mrs. Young brought her action against the defendant in the Circuit Court of Jackson county, Tennessee, but it was, on November 26, 1927, dismissed on a plea in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court.

On May 26, 1928, within one year after the accident, she brought suit for damages in the Circuit Court of Clay county, and summons was served on May 29, 1928.

On June 25, 1928, IT. M. Haile, one of the sureties on her cost bond, filed a petition alleging that he did not sign or authorize his name to be signed to her cost bond, and asked to be discharged as surety on the bond. An order was made by the court on June 28, 1928, releasing Haile from the cost bond, and requiring Mrs. Young to execute a new bond within twenty days. On October 22, 1928, the action was dismissed for failure to make a bond for costs.

On November 8, 1928, Mrs. Young brought this action for damages in the Circuit Court of Clay county, on the pauper’s oath, which action was brought within twelve months after the dismissal of the action in Jackson county.

Mrs. Young’s declaration contained three counts: (1) that the accident W'as caused by the negligence of the agent of defendant; (2) that the truck was being driven at an unlawful rate of speed; and (3) that the automobile was injured by the negligence of the agent of defendant. The third count was later dismissed and stricken.

On November 8, 1928, Miss Nannie Young, who had reached the age of twenty-one years on April 27, 1928, brought her action for damages, and averred that she was a minor at the time of the accident and injury and attained her majority less than one year before the bringing of her action.

The defendant, Cumberland Grocery Company, filed five pleas to Mrs. Young’s declaration:

(1) A plea of res adjudicata, averring (a) that plaintiff filed her suit in Jackson county for the same cause of action, which was, on November 26, 1927, dismissed on a plea to the jurisdiction; (b) that plaintiff theretofore had filed her suit in the Circuit Court of Clay county, which had been, on October 22, 1928, dismissed for failure to execute cost bond.

*92 (2)A plea of statute of limitation, averring that plaintiff’s cause of action accrued more than twelve months before-the commencement of this suit, and more than twelve months before the commencement of the first suit in Clay county, which was dismissed.

(9) A plea of accord and satisfaction, averring that before the commencement of this suit, defendant paid the repair bills on her car, amounting to $-, and paid to Dr. Reeves $50 for medical attention to Mrs. Young', which she accepted in full satisfaction of all damages sustained in the accident, both as to her person and to the automobile.

(4) A plea, of not guilty.

(5) A plea to the third count of the declaration in regard to the damages to the automobile, which third count was dismissed.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to Miss Young’s declaration.

Plaintiff, Mrs. Young, filed a demurrer, motion and replication to the pleas interposed by the defendant. She demurred to the first plea on five grounds, as follow's:

(1) That the plea is double.

(2) That the plea is insufficient in law because neither suit mentioned in the plea was a suit on the merits.

(3) Because the plea shows that the present suit falls within the saving of Section 4446 of Shannon’s Code.

(4) That part of the plea setting up the Jackson county suit shows that said suit was dismissed on plea in abatement to the jurisdiction of the court and not on the merits, and that part is specially demurred to.

(5) That part of the plea interposing the Clay county suit shows upon its face that it was dismissed for want of a cost bond or pauper oath, which is not an adjudication on the merits, and does not operate as a bar to this suit.

The court sustained the demurrer to the plea of res adjudicata, to which defendant excepted. The motion of the plaintiff to strike the pleas of the statute of limitations and accord and satisfaction, were by the court overruled.

Plaintiff, in her replication to the plea of the statute of limitations, averred that the first suit in Clay county was brought within one year after the accident, and was dismissed on account of her failure to execute cost bond, and that within twelve months after the dismissal of said suit the present suit was brought, therefore, in accordance with Section 4446 of Shannon’s Code, the bar of the statute of limitations of one year was saved.

In her replication to the plea of accord and satisfaction, she averred that the alleged settlement of her cause of action and release thereof was fraudulent, illegal and void, for the reasons that at the time it was procured by the defendant she was mentally incapable of *93 executing it; that it was procured by fraud and misrepresentation; that the amount paid was so small in comparison to the damages sustained by her as to constitute a fraud in law; and that the extent of her injuries was unknown to her at that time. She paid into court. the sum of $95, the amount of said settlement with interest.

Defendant filed rejoinders to said replications.

Hence, Mrs. Young’s ease was submitted to the jury on three issues:

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Bluebook (online)
15 Tenn. App. 89, 1932 Tenn. App. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-cumberland-grocery-co-tennctapp-1932.