Hagerty v. Radle
| Decision Date | 27 May 1949 |
| Docket Number | No. 34896.,34896. |
| Citation | 37 N.W.2d 819,228 Minn. 487 |
| Parties | HAGERTY v. RADLE et al. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court Washington County; Alfred P. Stolberg, Judge.
Action by Jane Hagerty, a minor, by her father and natural guardian, Willard J. Hagerty, and by Willard J. Hagerty, against Henry J. Radle and Thomas H. Radle, individually and as copartners doing business as Radle & Company, to recover for personal injuries sustained by minor plaintiff when bitten by stallion and to recover for medical expenses as result of the accident. The actions were dismissed as to defendant Thomas H. Radle. From order denying motion of defendant Henry J. Radle for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, a reduction of which was consented to by plaintiff, or for a new trial, the defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Doherty, Rumble, Butler & Mitchell, St. Paul, for appellant.
Neumeier, Harrigan & Eckberg, Stillwater, for respondent.
Appeal from an order of the district court denying the motion of defendant Henry J. Radle for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, a reduction of which was consented to by plaintiff, or for a new trial.
This matter initially involved two actions: One by Jane Hagerty, a minor, by her father and natural guardian, Willard J. Hagerty, for damages for the loss of the fourth and fifth fingers of her right hand caused by the alleged negligence of defendants, Henry J. Radle and Thomas H. Radle, individually and as copartners, in connection with the care and keeping of a stallion; the other by Willard J. Hagerty against the same defendant for medical expenses incurred by him as a result of the accident. The actions were dismissed as to defendant Thomas H. Radle, and the ones we are considering are against Henry J. Radle. For brevity, we shall refer hereinafter to Jane Hagerty, the minor, as plaintiff, and to Henry J. Radle as defendant. In the trial of the actions, the jury found in favor of defendant in the suit brought by Willard J. Hagerty for hospital and medical expenses, and in favor of plaintiff in the action brought on her behalf by her father and natural guardian. The amount of the verdict was $10,000, but the trial court ordered a new trial unless plaintiff should consent to a reduction of the verdict to $8,500, which was done. Defendant, however, did not accept the reduction and took this appeal.
According to defendant's testimony, he purchased Gold Strike, a part palomino Arabian stallion, on April 12, 1945, at South St. Paul and stabled him for a time, commencing May 16, 1945, on the premises of Irving H. Crotton in Stillwater, Minnesota. In August 1945, he was placed in defendant's stable, which is located on the outskirts of Stillwater.
The accident out of which this action arose occurred between 7:30 and 8 p. m. on August 14, 1946, at defendant's stable. On that evening, plaintiff, a young girl about 12 years and 10 months old, who had finished the seventh grade in school, had ridden her horse around the riding path near defendant's stable. For about three years previous to the accident she had attended girls camps during the summertime, where she rode a horse twice a week. In May 1946, her father purchased a horse for her, which she rode practically every evening from the time it was purchased until the date of the accident. At about 7:30 in the evening of the day of the accident, according to her testimony, she took her horse into defendant's barn, where it was being kept at the time, and stabled it herself in a stall in the barn. She said that her father, her mother, Maureen Radle, daughter of defendant, Ruth McGrath, and another girl were present with her in the barn at the time. After tying her horse in its stall plaintiff fed it some sugar. Gold Strike was stabled in a box stall in the same barn near the stall in which plaintiff's horse was kept. Plaintiff testified that after giving her horse some sugar she saw Gold Strike's nose "sniffing around at the bottom of his door so I thought I would give him some sugar." She said that she then "hunched down" on her feet, her knees bent, in front of the door of the stallion's stall, and that "he had his nose poked out there." She said that she had the sugar in the palm of her right hand; that she held it at the bottom of the door and he took it; that she then released her hand and the next thing she knew the stallion reached out, grabbed her hand, and bit it. She said that it was a quick grab and that "he started to pull my hand up under and I sat down and he pulled my hand up under and pulled me into the box stall."
Plaintiff testified on direct examination that the stallion kept hold of her and pulled her left leg to a point about to the knee under the box-stall door and that her arm was pulled under the door to a point halfway up between the elbow and shoulder, causing it to be scraped in the process. When plaintiff's hand was released, she observed that two of her fingers were gone — the record shows the fourth and fifth fingers of her right hand — and that her hand was bleeding. She said that no one had ever told her that she should not go near the stallion's stall; that she did not know there was any danger in going near it; that she did not know that the stallion might bite her. On cross-examination, however, she said that she had fed Gold Strike sugar before, but never in this manner; that she had fed him through a small mesh screen between the upper half of the wood stall and the ceiling by putting sugar on some wood, and that the stallion "had a trick of pushing the wood with his tongue." Further questioned on cross-examination, she said that the stallion took the sugar out of her hand with his lips and released her hand, but that she kept her hand at about the same place in the stall as she had it when she had the sugar in her hand. She said that the stallion took the sugar without nipping or biting her and that she then turned her hand upside down and was moving her fingers, but that she did not hold her hand there very long. She said that when she had fed the stallion on other occasions he had never attempted to bite her and that she had never seen him nip or bite any one before. She admitted that from her experience with horses, with the large teeth which they have, she knew that if she was not careful she might be bitten.
Plaintiff's father testified that he had been in defendant's barn on several occassions between the middle of 1946 and the date of the trial; that he had observed the box stall occupied by the stallion and that it was located in the southeast corner of the barn; and that there was never any other horse but the stallion in that particular box stall. He claimed that he had observed the horse cribbing and that there had been some effort on the part of defendant to prevent this cribbing; that he saw defendant nail up tin occasionally and that they had sheepskin there in order to prevent the stallion from cribbing; that the bars on the stall were rounded out and tin had to be put on the edge that had been "chewed"; and that the horse "chewed considerably on the door." He said that he was in defendant's barn on the night of the accident, but that he did not see the accident happen, as he was in the west door and his attention was first called to it when he heard his daughter scream. He said that she was down on her knees as close as she could get to the foot of the door; that his wife, Maureen Radle, Ruth McGrath, and another girl, whom he did not recall, were also present and standing approximately six or seven feet away from the stallion's box stall; and that he immediately took his daughter to the hospital. The finger next to the little finger on her right hand had been pulled out of the socket and the little finger stripped to the first or middle joint.
Plaintiff's mother, Genevieve Hagerty, testified that she was in the barn that night, but did not see the accident, as she was standing to the right of plaintiff, a little ahead of her, across the cement alleyway; that Maureen Radle and Ruth McGrath were standing between her and her daughter; and that her first knowledge of the accident was when she heard her daughter scream.
Maureen Radle, daughter of defendant, testified that she was present at the stable when the accident occurred; that plaintiff had been feeding her own horse in his stall; that while this was going on she (Maureen) was standing by Gold Strike's stall, leaning against it, and had her foot at the bottom of the door; that the stallion noticed her foot, as he looked down there and put his head down and that plaintiff noticed him do this and said, "I think I will give Strike some sugar." Maureen said that plaintiff then bent or stooped down and put her hand "to where Strike was, and then she screamed and jumped back or came back very quick." She could not say how plaintiff was holding her hand, but said that it was underneath the bottom of the door of the stallion's stall. She explained that at the time of the accident the stallion was standing and that his head came down at an angle to the bottom of the door of his stall; that it "was in front beyond the opening," and that she could see the bottom part of his head through the opening in the door. She claimed that plaintiff's parents were standing in the aisle, not very far behind their daughter, at the time of the accident, and that they were facing Gold Strike's stall. She also claimed that the only persons present at the time were plaintiff, Mr. and Mrs. Hagerty, and herself. She testified that there was bedding in Gold Strike's stall; that part of it was visible outside the stall; and that part of it was in the opening under the door.
There is considerable conflict in the testimony as to the nature and vicious propensities of the stallion. Irving H. Crotton, a man experienced in handling horses for many years, testified that he had kept the stallion for defendant in a box stall in his...
To continue reading
Request your trial