Goodman v. Lang

• Decision Date: 22 September 1930
• Docket Number: 28726
• Citation: 130 So. 50,158 Miss. 204
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: GOODMAN v. LANG

130 So. 50

158 Miss. 204

GOODMAN v. LANG

No. 28726

Supreme Court of Mississippi

September 22, 1930

Division B

Suggestion of Error Overruled, October 20, 1930.

APPEAL from circuit court of Washington county, HON. S. F. DAVIS Judge.

Suit by Lawrence Goodman against L. T. Lang. From the judgment rendered, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Wynn & Hafter, of Greenville, for appellant.

The amount of damages awarded the appellant was so grossly inadequate as to show bias or prejudice on the part of the jury, and this cause should be reversed for further assessment of damages by a jury.

It is perfectly obvious that the amount of damages awarded is so inadequate as to necessarily show a bias or prejudice or total disregard of the evidence in reaching this amount.

The record shows that Miss Arthur Lee Griffin, a trained nurse, was introduced in behalf of the appellant and that her testimony was excluded by the court and the records further show that, had she been permitted to testify, she would have testified that the appellee was in a very intoxicated condition after the accident, and that these observations were made prior to her being called upon to render any service to him in a professional capacity of any nature.

We fail to find where the supreme court of the state of Mississippi has ever ruled on the question of whether or not a communication between a trained nurse and her patient is a confidential communication which cannot be divulged.

Farish & Bell, of Greenwood, for appellee.

The jury found for appellant and he did not file a motion for a new trial and complain of the amount of the verdict of the jury. He cannot now be heard to complain of the amount of the verdict, unless he show that the court was in error in the rulings on the trial of the case, and that these errors misled the jury as to the proper elements or measure of damages and which may have reasonably resulted in an award of improper damages.

Coccora v. Vicksburg Light & Traction Co., 126 Miss. 713, 89 So. 257.

The verdict of the jury is not so grossly inadequate as to show a bias or prejudice.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

The appellant was plaintiff in the court below and brought suit against the appellee for personal injuries inflicted by a collision of cars, one driven by the plaintiff and the other driven by the defendant, which occurred upon the public highway south of Greenville, Mississippi.

There was a conflict between the evidence for the plaintiff and the evidence for the defendant as to which side of the road the collision occurred upon, and as to the incidents happening at the time. The plaintiff's version of the affair was that the plaintiff was driving upon the right-hand side of the road going north towards Greenville, and that the defendant in approaching the plaintiff's car was traveling about the center of the road, or, as the witness expressed it, "across the black line," and that prior to the collision the defendant pulled to the defendant's right, which would be the left-hand side of the road from plaintiff's position, or the west side of the road, plaintiff claiming to have been upon the east side. Plaintiff testified that after the defendant pulled to the west side of the road he thought he would stay there, but that just before the collision occurred the defendant pulled back to the east side of the road, upon which plaintiff was driving, and caused the collision.

The defendant's version was that the collision occurred upon the west side of the road, which was the left-hand side going to Greenville, and the right-hand side coming from Greenville, and that the fault was that of the plaintiff. The testimony shows that the plaintiff was traveling from thirty-five to forty miles per hour, and that the collision occurred between twelve and one o'clock at night. The testimony for plaintiff shows that...