Henry v. Bacon
| Decision Date | 24 July 1956 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | John HENRY v. Loren E. BACON et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut |
Robert Y. Pelgrift, Hartford, for appellants (defendants).
Donald R. Hirsch, Hartford, with whom were A. Arthur Giddon, Hartford, and, on the brief, Morton E. Cole and Cyril Cole, Hartford, for appellee (plaintiff).
Before BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ., and COMLEY, Superior Court Judge.
This action was brought against Loren E. and Sophie A. Bacon, husband and wife. The plaintiff sought recovery for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained as the result of their negligence. The defendants' motion for a directed verdict was denied. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. From the judgment rendered thereon the defendants have appealed, claiming that the court erred in denying their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and their motion to set aside the verdict.
Upon the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the jury reasonably could have found the following facts: In September, 1944, the defendants purchased a house on Tower Avenue in Hartford and occupied it in October. The defendant Loren E. Bacon was the plaintiff's foreman on the night shift in a factory where they worked. About a week before December 2, 1944, the plaintiff, who had had some experience with shrubs and plants, went to the defendants' property. While he was there, he noticed that an apple tree on the property had a very dense top on it, and he told Bacon that he thought the tree needed pruning, which would require picking out the interfering limbs and sawing them off. Bacon asked the plaintiff if he would do it, and he said that he would at the proper time, during the dormant part of the tree's life. Since there were no leaves on the tree at the time, it was difficult to distinguish the live limbs from the dead ones. During the following week, on several occasions, Bacon asked the plaintiff when he was going to prune the tree. Bacon had seen the apple tree in September, when it had foliage upon it, and knew then that several of its branches were dead.
During the night of December 1 and the early morning of December 2, 1944, Bacon requested the plaintiff to go to the property directly from work and trim the tree. The plaintiff preferred to go later in the day but, because of the insistence of Bacon, he agreed to commence trimming the tree immediately after work. At 7 a. m. on December 2, the plaintiff and Bacon left the factory where they worked and proceeded towards the defendants' property. On the way Bacon decided to stop at a bakery to make a purchase and instructed the plaintiff to go along and start work on the tree. The plaintiff arrived at the defendants' property about 7:15 a. m. Dawn was then breaking, and the plaintiff could see the outline of the branches. He climbed the tree and cut off two branches and then stepped on another in order to shift his position when the branch upon which he stepped broke and he fell to the ground, receiving serious injuries. Bacon arrived while the plaintiff was in the tree, but he did not warn the plaintiff then, nor had he warned him previously, of the existence of the dead limb which caused the plaintiff's fall. The branch was rotted, but the plaintiff was not aware of its condition until it broke when he stepped on it. After the plaintiff's fall, Bacon made several visits to the plaintiff at the hospital where he was a patient, and during one of them told him that he had known about the limb and was sorry he did not tell him about 'that dead limb.'
The plaintiff claimed that the defendants were negligent in failing to warn him of the condition of the tree and its dead limbs, and he denied that...
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State v. Reardon
...of testimony which ordinarily is the jury's exclusive function; and the court cannot substitute its judgment for theirs. Henry v. Bacon, 143 Conn. 648, 651, 124 A.2d 913; Castaldo v. D'Eramo, 140 Conn. 88, 93, 98 A.2d It was not error to admit the opinion of Dr. Reading, in any event, in vi......
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...and exclusive province of the jury to pass on the credibility of witnesses. Rood v. Russo, 161 Conn. 1, 3, 283 A.2d 220; Henry v. Bacon, 143 Conn. 648, 651, 124 A.2d 913. In effect, the defendant asks this court to substitute its own judgment concerning the credibility of witnesses for that......
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...and the weight to be accorded to their testimony lie within the province of the jury. We cannot retry the case. Henry v. Bacon, 143 Conn. 648, 651, 124 A.2d 913. * * *.' Desmarais v. Pinto, 147 Conn. 109, 110, 157 A.2d 596, 598. 'When the decision of the trial court concurs with that of the......
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...of contributory negligence and assumption of risk present questions of fact, or of mixed law and fact, for the jury. Henry v. Bacon, 143 Conn. 648, 652, 124 A.2d 913; Marley v. New England Transportation Co., supra, 133 Conn. 589, 53 A.2d at page 297; Magaraci v. Santa Marie, 130 Conn. 323,......