"This is an action against the appellant brought by the appellee to recover for personal injuries received by her by being thrown from appellant's street car while attempting to alight therefrom, the allegation being, in effect, that the car on which appellee was traveling stopped at a regular stopping place, and while she was attempting to alight the car was negligently started, which caused her to fall and sustain the injuries complained of. Defendant pleaded a general denial and contributory negligence. A trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff. There is no question raised on this appeal but that the evidence warranted a recovery. The only assignment of error attacks one paragraph of the court's charge, which is as follows: `If you find for the plaintiff, you will find such an amount as you believe from the evidence will be a fair and just pecuniary compensation for her physical suffering and mental pain, if any, her impaired ability to earn money, if any, the reasonable amount incurred for medicine and medical attention, if any, made necessary as the direct and proximate result of the defendant's negligence, if any.' Four propositions are made under this assignment, which may be embraced in two.
"The first, in effect, is that the evidence does not state any facts which would enable the jury to reach an intelligent conclusion as to the amount of loss sustained by reason of the impairment of plaintiff's ability to earn money, and the court erred in instructing them upon the measure of damages as to impaired ability to earn money. As to impaired ability to earn money the evidence shows that at the time of the accident and several months prior thereto plaintiff was working at a phonograph office as stenographer; that as a result of the accident it was five weeks before she returned to work, and after returning she was not able to work full time, and her ability to perform such work was materially impaired; that it was assumed on the trial that plaintiff was a middle-aged woman; and that she had two children. She testified as follows: `I had gotten through work about 6 o'clock. When I fell I lighted on this side [left side]. I was dazed. I stood up with my weight on the other foot. The other foot was a heavy weight hanging to my body. It brought my monthly sickness on, and it was not time for it again. Ever since the accident I have had my monthly sickness every three weeks, and now it is getting less than three weeks apart, and lasts me nearly all the time. I have to be prepared for it all the time. On one occasion at the office I left off my pads, and I had on four skirts, with a heavy black skirt, and it came through all of these and got on the cushion I was on, and I handed it to a girl down there and she had to take it out and conceal it. It just comes most any time. Before the accident I was regular. I was considered very healthy. I would walk to my work and walk home, two miles from where I worked. The feeling I had in my leg was pain. It seemed to be heavy and stiff, and is that way now. I never before had a doctor with me, except when my two children were born. I could stand most anything before, but now I have a nervous trembling to my muscles. What flesh I have in my left leg quivers, and the muscles around my mouth quiver. I do not suffer with headache. I hardly ever have a headache. I take the car right at my door and ride to the transfer, and it is only a few steps to where I work, and that is all the walking I do. I never had any trouble with my kidneys before the accident. Now I have to take medicine every time they operate. Sometimes I go two days, and there is a fullness in my bladder all the time. I know my leg is shorter now than it was before the accident. I can take a few steps and stop, and get about a short distance by holding to things, and I cannot walk more than a few blocks with a cane without stopping and resting and steadying myself. I have almost given up walking at all.' On cross-examination she testified: `I work all the time, only I get off early. I have the best people in the world to work for. Yes, sir; during last week I cried in the office. They often ask me there what I am crying about. I cry there often. Yes, sir; I was on
the witness stand about two hours last January, and I did not cry any then; but, Mr. Harris, my condition is worse. My working hours are 8 to 6. Sometimes I get there at half past 8. I do pretty much as I please. As a general rule, I do not stay there full time. Some days I have only 12 letters to write. In the store we have cabinets and phonographs all along, and I can walk along holding to one cabinet and then go along and hold to another. I always have to hold to something when I walk so as to prevent it from hurting me. Before the accident my standard weight was 140 pounds. In January this year I weighed 105 pounds. I weighed last week and weighed 98 pounds.' That she was confined to her bed 14 days and returned to work 5 weeks after the injury. W. T. Pace testified: `On the 5th of June last year when I got home plaintiff was lying on a couch and groaning, her face contorted, and hands all cramped up. We got Dr. Poe. Three days after I called in Dr. Smart for consultation, and she was in such condition if you touched her, moved or manipulated the parts, she would halloa, and you could hear her across the street. She remained two weeks confined to her bed. During the night I could hear her groaning. She had something the matter with her hip. I often assisted her in turning over and moving her about the bed, and at those times she would scream out with pain. Her left leg was immovable. I have known her since 1900 intimately, and I have always known her to be a healthy woman before this accident. Her weight was 140 pounds, and she walked to town, a mile and one-half, or two miles, without any complaint. Her face is thin. She has fallen off almost to a skeleton.' That she had been working as stenographer for 13 months at the time of trial—began 3 months before the accident. Mr. Newman testified: `Plaintiff could not move her leg. She would scream every time you started to move her. Before the injury she was in good health and walked everywhere she wanted to. Since the accident she has lost a great deal of weight, and is not the same woman at all. She cannot get about, even in the house, and suffers all the time. She is physically a different person. I don't believe now she would weigh over 100 pounds. She cannot get about hardly at all without a cane, and even catches to the furniture in passing. Her condition is worse than it was at the former trial. Her height is about 5 feet 6 inches.' Dr. Poe testified: `I found her wrought up, nervous, and suffering injury to her hip joint. On examination I concluded it was an injury to the hip joint and the contiguous tissues thereto. I treated her two weeks. I saw her twice a day most of the time. Dr. Smart made a casual examination. I next saw her at her mother's house. The condition of the hip and the soreness remained the same. The joint...
