Cook v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.

• Decision Date: 15 April 1937
• Docket Number: 14466.
• Citation: 190 S.E. 923,183 S.C. 279
• Parties: COOK v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

190 S.E. 923

183 S.C. 279

COOK v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.

No. 14466.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

April 15, 1937

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Bamberg County; Wm. H Grimball, Judge.

Action by Otis Cook against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Reversed.

Douglas McKay, of Columbia, and E. H. Henderson, of Bamberg, for appellant.

Kearse & Kearse and B. D. Carter, all of Bamberg, for respondent.

BAKER Justice.

The respondent herein brought suit against the appellant Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, asking for actual and punitive damages because of alleged personal injuries received on or about August 9, 1935, in Barnwell county, when respondent leaped from an automobile in order to avoid being killed or seriously injured immediately prior to a collision between the automobile and the train of the appellant at a public crossing. The allegations of the complaint were denied by the appellant.

During the trial of the case the usual motions for nonsuit and for directed verdict were made by the appellant at the proper time, said motions being overruled. All issues were submitted to the jury and a verdict returned in favor of respondent for the sum of "Two Hundred Dollars punitive damages."

Immediately after publication of the verdict, counsel for appellant moved that the court instruct the jury to find a verdict for the appellant non obstante veredicto, which motion was opposed by respondent and refused by the court. From the refusal of this motion an appeal is taken upon the following exceptions:

"His Honor the Trial Judge erred in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant, since the finding of the jury negatived and denied plaintiff's claim of negligence and for resulting actual damages, without which finding the verdict for punitive damages could not be supported.

His Honor erred in failing to direct a verdict for the defendant, motion for which having been made before the jury was discharged and after a finding on its part that defendant was free from negligence, which finding necessitated a direction by the Court in favor of the defendant."

Considerable confusion appears in the cases upon this question, as decided by this court, as well as in other jurisdietions. The general rule is that a verdict for punitive damages alone will not stand, but actual damages must be found as a predicate for punitive damages.

The rule in this state appears to be: Where the pleadings allege and the evidence shows a conscious and willful violation, invasion, or infringement of a legal right, the law will presume damages sufficient to sustain an action, even though such damages may be only nominal and not capable of exact measurement; and in such case a verdict for punitive damages without the finding of actual damages will be sustained, since it will be presumed that such nominal damages incapable of admeasurement have been merged in the punitive damages. But where the actual damages sought are for traumatic injury, or injury to property, then in order to sustain a verdict for punitive damages, there must be actual damages capable of being measured in terms of dollars and cents-actual damages in some amount must be found independent of punitive damages.

This in nowise conflicts with suits against telegraph companies under what is ordinarily known as the "Mental Anguish Statute," although it is through quoting and citing from some of the cases where the mental anguish statute aided plaintiff that some of the confusion has arisen.

Exemplary damages do not and cannot exist as an independent cause of action, but such damages are mere incidents to the cause of action and can never constitute the basis thereof. If the injured party has no cause of action independent of a supposed right to recover exemplary damages, then he has no cause of action at all; consequently, there must be allegations of actual or nominal damages in the pleadings and a proof thereof in the trial of the cause in order to support a verdict for punitive damages alone.

The cases of Doster v. Western Union Tel. Co., 77 S.C 56, 57 S.E. 671; Arial v. Western Union Tel. Co., 70 S.C. 418, 50 S.E. 6, 7; Wilhelm v. Western Union Tel. Co., 90 S.C. 536, 73 S.E. 865; Bethea v. Western Union Tel. Co., 97 S.C. 385, 81 S.E. 675; Reaves v....