Kelley v. Central Railroad of Iowa

• Decision Date: 01 October 1883
• Parties: KELLEY v. CENTRAL RAILROAD OF IOWA.
• Court: United States Circuit Court, District of Iowa

48 F. 663

KELLEY v. CENTRAL RAILROAD OF IOWA.

United States Circuit Court, D. Iowa.

October, 1883

C. H Gutch, for plaintiff.

Blair &amp Daly, for defendant.

McCRARY J., (orally charging jury.)

If you find for the plaintiff you assess her damages at such just and reasonable sum as will compensate the estate of the deceased for the loss occasioned by his death. In determining what this amount shall be, in case you come to the question of damages, you will consider the circumstances of the deceased, his occupation, age, health, habits as to industry sobriety, and economy, the amount of his property, if any and the probable duration of his life, and from these elements you will determine what his annual income during life would probably have been which would have been saved to his estate, and not expended, and a gross sum which would have produced a like income at interest will be a proper sum to be allowed as damages. I do not say that you are obliged to find the amount by this process. You may exercise your discretion as to the mode of arriving at the value of the life of the deceased to his estate, but that value, when ascertained and fixed by you, must be the sum of your verdict. The mode is suggested as a convenient one, which you can adopt if you choose.

In a case of this character you are not to take into account the pain and suffering of the deceased, nor the wounded feelings or grief of his relatives, in fixing the damages. What you are to ascertain and by your verdict decide, if you come to the question, is what, according to the evidence, would have been the probable pecuniary benefit to the estate of the deceased from the continuance of his life. This you are not expected to determine with accuracy, as that would be impossible; but you are to fix, according to your best judgment in the light of the evidence, what the amount would probably have been. Reasonable probability is all that can be expected in such a case. No arbitrary rule can be laid down. The elements which enter into the question of the value of a life to the estate of the deceased are so various that the matter must be left, under proper instructions from the court, to the sound discretion of the jury. The purpose of the statute under which this suit is brought is compensation. It is not the loss of the deceased, but the loss of the estate, which is to be estimated. The purpose of the statute is to make good to the heirs...