Griffin v. Gladden

• Decision Date: 27 March 1967
• Docket Number: No. 44334,44334
• Citation: 197 So.2d 891
• Parties: A. D. GRIFFIN v. Mrs. Velma GLADDEN.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 891

197 So.2d 891

A. D. GRIFFIN v. Mrs. Velma GLADDEN.

No. 44334.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 27, 1967.

Suggestion of Error Overruled May 8, 1967.

Brandon, Brandon, Hornsby & Handy, Natchez, Satterfield, Shell, Williams & Buford, K. Hayes Callicutt, Jackson, for appellant.

William F. Riley, Natchez, for appellee.

ROBERTSON, Justice.

The Defendant, A. D. Griffin, has appealed to this Court from the $20,000 judgment rendered in the Circuit Court of Adams County, Mississippi, in favor of the Plaintiff, Mrs. Velma Gladden, for personal injuries and property damage sustained by her when defendant drove his automobile into the rear of plaintiff's automobile on the Mississippi River Bridge between Natchez, Mississippi, and Vidalia, Louisiana.

About 3:45 P.M. on August 27, 1964, a clear and dry day, the plaintiff drove her Oldsmobile automobile on to the Mississippi River Bridge headed west for Vidalia, Louisiana. She noticed that the traffic was moving very slowly in her lane of traffic. The Mississippi River Bridge inclines upward as you leave the Mississippi side, then levels out and gradually declines as it approaches the Louisiana side. The bridge is 4,210 feet long and the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana is about 1,090 feet from the Mississippi end of the bridge and about 3,120 feet from the Louisiana end of the bridge. The Mississippi bank is a bluff, whereas the Louisiana bank is gradually rising land.

As the plaintiff reached the level portion of the bridge, she noticed a pulpwood truck stalled on the very gradual downward slope of the bridge. The cars back of the truck were stopping and proceeding around the truck when the south traffic lane became open. When the defendant entered the bridge from the Mississippi side he noticed the plaintiff's car about ten to fifteen car lengths in front of him. He noticed that the traffic was moving slowly, but he proceeded to gain on the plaintiff until he was two car lengths back of her. Defendant testified that he noticed her tail lights go on and he applied his brakes, but was not able to stop. He stated that the speed limits changed on the bridge and he had slowed down to 20 miles per hour at the time he applied his brakes.

The damages to the plaintiff's Oldsmobile amounted to $209.59. The plaintiff attempted to see Dr. L. P. Coleman at Ferriday, Louisiana, on the date of the accident, but he was out and she was not able to see him until August 31, four days after the accident. He found that she had considerable pain in the back of her neck on both sides and the back shoulder area toward the root of her neck. Later in September of 1964, plaintiff-appellee complained of having back pains on the right side in the sacroiliac area. Dr. Coleman explained that this would be in the right hip and the pain radiated down to the knee. X-rays showed that the appellee had an extra cervical rib on each side in the neck area.

Dr. Coleman testified that he had seen the appellee about 75 times, and that he had prescribed mild types of pain killing drugs a number of times.

She was referred by Dr. Coleman in late September, 1964, to Dr. J. M. Moore of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and on July 31, 1965, to Dr. Jesse L. Henderson of Natchez, Mississippi, both of whom are orthopedic surgeons. Dr. Moore testified that there were muscle knots on both sides of the neck, that the appellee had an extra cervical rib on each side of the neck, that the patient was suffering considerable pain from this whiplash type injury, and that if she continued to have trouble the cervical ribs would have to come out. He testified that there was causal connection between the injury and the pain in the cervical rib area because she had not had trouble before. X-rays showed some arthritis in the lower right back which has caused pain since the wreck. The wreck could have triggered this trouble.

Dr. Henderson removed the extra cervical rib on the right side in August, 1965, in the hope that this would relieve some of the pressure on that side. The appellee complained of migraine headaches, which Dr. Henderson said could be aggravated by her neck injury.

The hospital, drug and doctors' bills amounted to about $2,066.

During the trial of this case the Appellee, Mrs. Gladden, submitted to an examination by Dr. Jack H. Phillips, an orthopedic surgeon of Natchez, Mississippi, Dr. Phillips testified that in his opinion migraine headaches were not related to trauma from automobile accidents, that he found no nerve root involvement, that he found no reflex changes and no muscle weakness or atrophy. Dr. Phillips testified that cervical ribs are congenital and from his experience and what he had read, he knew of no instances in which cervical ribs had been made symptomatic or caused trouble following a whiplash type injury such as Mrs. Gladden had experienced.

Mrs. Gladden was the mother of five children ranging in age from four to sixteen. The four girls were in school, but the youngest, a boy, was at home.

The appellee testified that before the accident, she assisted her husband in his farming operations by driving a pick-up truck, hauling cotton to the gin and wheat and beans to the elevator, that she would pick up parts for farm machinery and carry them to her husband in the field, that she would drive through the pasture and check on the cattle, that she attended functions for the children and led an active physical life. She testified that she was now very much circumscribed in her activities and could do very little to assist her husband or to look after the children.

Dr. Coleman testified that at times she was incapacitated about 75 per cent.

The appellant assigned as error the following:

1. The trial court erred in granting instruction number 1 for plaintiff.

2. The trial court erred in not requiring Mrs. Gladden to answer certain interrogatories propounded to her by Defendant Griffin.

3. The trial court erred in not taking up the jurisdictional question as a separate item to be determined by the trial court.

4. The trial court erred in granting instruction number 2 for Mrs. Gladden.

5. The verdict of the jury and the judgment of the trial court was and is so excessive as to evince passion and prejudice on the part of the jury.

Instruction number 1 for plaintiff reads as follows:

'The Court charges you that if you believe from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the defendant drove a car into the rear of a car driven by the plaintiff at a point within the State of Mississippi on the Natchez-Vidalia river bridge and that the defendant was negligent in the operation of his car so as to cause it to come into contact with the car driven by plaintiff, and that such negligence, if any, proximately caused or contributed to the injuries sustained by plaintiff, if any, then you shall find for the plaintiff.'

The appellant contends that no guidelines were given to the jury as to what constituted negligence even though seven specific grounds of negligence were charged in the declaration.

The appellee asked for and was granted three instructions. This was the only instruction on negligence. However, the defendant asked for and was granted eight instructions, including two on negligence.

Instruction number 1 for the defendant was a particularly full instruction on the burden of proof and the question of proving negligence against the...