Dennis v. Odend'hal-monks Corp.
Decision Date | 06 December 1943 |
Citation | 28 S.E.2d 4,182 Va. 77 |
Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Parties | DENNIS et al. v. ODEND'HAL-MONKS CORPORATION. |
Error to Circuit Court of City of Norfolk; Allan R. Hanckel, Judge.
Separate actions by Lewis S. Dennis, an infant, etc., and by John Lewis Dennis against Odend'Hal-Monks Corporation for personal injuries sustained by infant plaintiff and for damages on account of medical and other expenses incurred by infant's father. The actions were consolidated under Code 1942, § 5331a, and by consent were considered as one case. To review a judgment sustaining demurrers to the notices of motion for judgment and dismissing the actions, plaintiffs bring error.
Judgment affirmed.
Before CAMPBELL, C. J., and HUDGINS, GREGORY, BROWNING, EGGLESTON, and SPRATLEY, JJ.
Martin & Martin and Smith & Smith, all of Norfolk, for plaintiff in error.
Rixey & Rixey, of Norfolk, for defendant in error.
The plaintiffs in error, who were the plaintiffs in the trial court, sued the defendant in error, Odend'Hal-Monks Corporation by notice of motion for judgment, for damages resulting from personal injuries sustained by Lewis Sterling Dennis, an infant under the age of twenty-one years.
John Lewis Dennis, father of said infant, sued separately for damages on account of medical and other expenses incurred by him in the treatment of the infant plaintiff.
These actions were consolidated under the provisions of section 5331a of the Code of Virginia, and by consent were considered as one case.
The defendant demurred to the notices of motion, original and amended, which was sustained, and the actions were dismissed on December 30, 1942. By writ of error granted the case is before us.
The sole question to be considered is whether the notices of motion stated acause of action. If they did the demurrers should have been overruled. If they did not the court was right in sustaining them.
The facts, as stated in the notices of motion and which are admitted by the demurrers, are as follows, quoting from the plaintiffs' petition:
The plaintiffs contend that the facts stated and admitted by the demurrers constitute negligence on the part of the defendant, which consisted in leaving its truck parked on the side of the street, near a sand pile, where children congregated and played, with workmans tools, and a Pepsi-Cola bottle, containing muriatic acid, bearing the Pepsi-Cola label, in the body of the truck, the bottle, with its contents, constituting an attractive article to children and accessible to them. The defendant urges that the conditions created by this state of facts are not negligence.
The trial court, in sustaining the demurrers, took the position that the happening complained of could not reasonably have been expected; that foreseeableness or reasonable anticipation of the consequences of an act is determinative of the question of negligence.
The court made its written opinion a part of the record, in which it cited cases from this court as authority for its position. The case of Virginia Iron, Coke & Coal Co. v. Hughes' Adm'r, 118 Va. 731, 88 S.E. 88, 92, is cited, in which it was said: "It is not negligence to fail to take precautionary measures to prevent an injury which, if taken, would have prevented it, when the injury could not reasonably have been anticipated, and would not have happened but for the occurrence of exceptional circumstances."
And again the case of Newport News & O. P. Ry. & Elect. Co. v. Clarks' Adm'r, 105 Va. 205, 52 S.E. 1010, 6 L.R. A., N.S., 905, 115 Am.St.Rep. 868, was cited.
If an occurrence is one that could not reasonably have been expected the defendant is not liable. Foreseeableness or...
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