Rea Riggin & Sons v. Scott

• Decision Date: 29 September 1943
• Docket Number: 17065.
• Citation: 50 N.E.2d 664,114 Ind.App. 4
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court
• Parties: REA RIGGIN & SONS, Inc., et al. v. SCOTT.

50 N.E.2d 664

114 Ind.App. 4

REA RIGGIN & SONS, Inc., et al. v. SCOTT.

No. 17065.

Appellate Court of Indiana, in Banc.

September 29, 1943

Davis & Davis, of Muncie, for appellants.

White & Haymond, Walter D. White, and George W. Pierce, all of Muncie, for appellee.

ROYSE Chief Judge.

Appellee brought this action against appellants to recover damages for personal injuries caused by a collision of appellee's automobile with a motor truck belonging to appellant Rea Riggin & Sons, Inc., driven by Chester Bailey coappellant, an employee of the corporation.

Trial by jury on appellee's first paragraph of amended complaint resulted in a verdict in favor of appellee in the sum of $500.

The errors assigned here are: (1) The court erred in overruling appellants' separate and several motion to make the amended complaint more definite, specific and certain; (2) the court erred in overruling appellants' separate and several demurrer to the amended complaint; (3) the court erred in overruling appellants' separate and several motion for a new trial; (4) the court erred in refusing to give to the jury twenty instructions tendered by appellants.

The first paragraph of amended complaint alleges, in substance that appellant Rea Riggin & Sons, Inc., was a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of Indiana; that there was a certain public highway paved with blacktop to the width of approximately 18 feet, extending north from the Town of Parker, in Randolph County, Indiana, for several miles that this highway was intersected at right angles approximately one mile north of said town of Parker by another public highway, commonly known as Centennial Pike, extending in an easterly and westerly direction, paved with gravel to a width of approximately 16 feet; that on or about June 30, 1939 at about 8 a.m. appellee was operating a Pontiac four-door sedan automobile owned by him in a southerly direction over said north and south highway in the vicinity of its intersection with said Centennial Pike; that on said date appellant Chester Bailey, as agent and servant of appellant Rea Riggin & Sons, Inc., and in the course of his employment as such agent, drove a milk truck owned by said appellant corporation in a westerly direction over said Centennial Pike and negligently, recklessly and carelessly drove and operated the same at the rate of speed of approximately 55 miles per hour into the intersection of said highways after appellee's automobile had entered said intersection and immediately in front of appellee's automobile without stopping and without giving any warning signal of any kind or character whatsoever, although appellee had the right of way at said intersection, thereby causing the automobile of appellee to collide with said truck; that as a result of said negligence, recklessness and carelessness on the part of said appellants in the operation of said truck appellee was violently thrown about within his automobile in such a manner that he suffered severe personal injuries which are set out in the complaint; that as a result of said injuries he was unable to work for a long period of time after said collision.

There were three specifications in appellants' motion to require appellee to make his complaint more definite specific and certain. It sought to require appellee to set out and state facts in support of the following alleged conclusions: (1) "that the defendant, Chester Bailey, at said time drove said truck in a westerly direction over Centennial Pike and negligently, recklessly and carelessly drove and operated the same at a rate of speed of approximately fifty-five (55) miles per...