Hays v. United Rys. Co. of St. Louis

• Decision Date: 02 June 1914
• Docket Number: No. 13658.,13658.
• Citation: 167 S.W. 656,183 Mo. App. 608
• Parties: HAYS v. UNITED RYS. CO. OF ST. LOUIS.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

167 S.W. 656

183 Mo. A. 608

HAYS v. UNITED RYS. CO. OF ST. LOUIS.

No. 13658.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

June 2, 1914.

DAMAGES (§ 132)—EXCESSIVENESS—PERSONAL INJURY.

Plaintiff, a girl of 15, was thrown from an automobile in collision with one of defendant's cars. She was caught and dragged beneath the overturned machine with her face on cinders in the roadway, so as to break the skin covering her forehead and face and grind small particles of cinders into her flesh. One of her fingers was broken and both knees were lacerated so as to occasion great pain, and she received bruises on the back and arms and over her body generally. She was confined in bed two weeks, and suffered a severe nervous shock. Her forehead and face as a result of the cinders appeared as one tatooed, and she was required to undergo painful treatment by a skin specialist in order to eradicate this appearance. The treatment was successful, but her face was disfigured by a scar which her attending physician testified might not be removed. Held, that a verdict for $4,000 sustained by the trial judge was not so excessive as to indicate passion or prejudice.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court, Daniel D. Fisher, Judge.

Action by Frances B. Hays, a minor, against the United Railways Company of St. Louis. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Boyle & Priest, W. B. Priest, E. C. Adkins, and Chaundey H. Clarke, all of St. Louis, for appellant. George B. Webster, of St. Louis, for respondent.

NORTONI, J.

This is a suit for damages accrued to plaintiff on account of personal injuries received through defendant's negligence. Plaintiff, suing by her father as next friend, recovered, and defendant prosecutes the appeal.

But one argument is advanced here for a reversal of the judgment, and that relates to the amount of the recovery. The jury assessed plaintiff's damages at the sum of $4,000, and the amount is said to be excessive. No question whatever is made touching the right of recovery, or pertaining to the proceedings had at the trial. It appears that plaintiff, Frances B. Hays, is a young girl, aged 15 years at the time of her injury. She, in company with her mother and others, was in an automobile which became stalled on defendant's car track. The evidence tends to prove that defendant's car, through the negligence of its motorman, ran upon the automobile with such force as to thrust it forward 60 feet down the track and overturn it. Plaintiff was caught and dragged beneath the overturned automobile, with her face upon cinders in the roadway so as to break the skin covering her forehead and face and grind small particles of cinders into her flesh. Moreover, one of her fingers was broken, and both knees were lacerated so as to occasion great pain and suffering, and she received bruises on the back and arms and over her body generally. She was confined to her bed two weeks as a result of the collision, and it is said suffered a severe nervous shock therefrom. It appears that as a result of the particles of cinders being ground into the flesh of her forehead and face, she appeared as one tatooed, and was required to undergo treatment for several months by a skin specialist in order to eradicate the tatooed appearance. While this treatment appears to have been highly successful, until trace of the cinders in the flesh was almost removed, it was exceedingly painful to undergo. A freezing process was employed by the specialist through the application of a substance known as carbon snow, carbon dioxide, with a view of freezing the upper layers of the skin and causing a deep exfoliation, or scaling off, so as to throw off the cinders imbedded in the flesh beneath. This treatment, it is said, is very painful at the time of administration, and for some time thereafter. Indeed, both the plaintiff and the physician testify that the patient suffers for 8 or 10 hours considerable pain, and then there is reaction —inflammation of the...