Long v. Hooker
| Decision Date | 14 July 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 53765,53765,2 |
| Citation | 443 S.W.2d 178 |
| Parties | Alvina Ann LONG, Appellant, v. Edna M. HOOKER, Respondent |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Thomas J. Stephens, Jerold L. Drake, Stephens & Drake, Grant City, for appellant.
Somerville, Cleaveland & Macoubrie, Ronald L. Somerville, Chillicothe, for respondent.
In this action plaintiff sought to recover damages in the amount of $100,000 for personal injuries sustained in an automobile collision. Plaintiff was riding in a car being driven by her husband. The collision occurred on Route K in Livingston County, Missouri. The Long car was proceeding east and the car driven by defendant was going west. The two cars collided when defendant started to make a left turn into the driveway of her home which was located on the south side of the highway. A trial resulted in a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $2,500. Plaintiff has duly appealed. We have jurisdiction because the amount in dispute is $97,500.
Since the only points raised on this appeal relate to damages we will confine our factual statement to that issue. The collision occurred at about 9 a.m. on September 4, 1965. Plaintiff was thrown into the windshield and received three facial lacerations. One was eight centimeters long extending vertically from the right eyebrow into the hairline. Another, ten centimeters in length, ran from the inner aspect of her right eye across her forehead into the hairline, and the third, six centimeters in length, tongue-shaped or in the form of an inverted horsehoe, was on her right cheek. Plaintiff was taken to the emergency room of the Chillicothe Hospital where she was met by her physician, Dr. W. L. Fair, who did rather extensive repair work in suturing the lacerations herein described. X-rays also disclosed that she had a comminuted fracture of the distal end of the radius in her right arm. A cast was applied which remained on her arm for about six weeks. Dr. Fair testified that there was some permanent limitation in turning the right wrist, and that the scars on plaintiff's face were permanent.
Plaintiff was pregnant at the time of the collision and gave birth to a child about five weeks following the accident. Dr. Fair testified that although the child was born a month early the birth and delivery were normal and that nothing connected with the birth was related in any way to the accident.
Plaintiff was 18 years old at the time of the collision. She testified that she did not remember anything after the collision until she awoke in the hospital room late in the afternoon of that day; that when she awoke she had a burning or stinging sensation in her face and her right arm hurt; that she became upset because she didn't feel the baby move and was afraid that she had lost it; that she would sometimes dream about the baby being deformed; that she remained in the hospital four days and upon dismissal stayed a few days in the home of her parents before going back to her own home.
Plaintiff further testified that at the time of the accident she was employed as a nurse's aide at the Darr Nursing Home at a salary of $100 per month; that she went back to work in February 1966 as a nurse's aide at the Chillicothe Hospital where her salary was $165 per month but she worked longer hours than she had worked at the nursing home; that she quit work at the hospital in June 1966 and in December of that year accepted employment from Dr. Weber as a receptionist in his office at a salary of $200 per month; that she was employed by Dr. Weber at the time of trial and was doing everything in assisting him that one working in a doctor's office would ordinarily do. She further stated that after prolonged typing or writing she had pain in her right arm and that she could not shake down a thermometer with that arm; that plastic surgery had been performed on her scars by Dr. Bingham in operations at the Medical Center in Columbia in February and August of 1966. Plaintiff also testified that she quit nursing because many patients would ask about the scars on her face and she felt that that was not good for the patients and it also depressed her; that at trial time she was more nervous and more self-conscious and embarrassed around strange people than she had been before her injuries; that she restricted her attendance at social and civic functions where there were people in attendance with whom she was not acquainted.
Dr. Hal G. Bingham of the University Medical Center in Columbia testified that he performed plastic surgery on plaintiff's face on February 3, 1966, and again on August 25, 1966. At the time of the February operation plaintiff entered the hospital on the 2nd and was dismissed on the 4th. In August plaintiff entered the hospital and was operated upon on August 25 and was dismissed the next day. We see no need to detail the technical processes followed by Dr. Bingham in these operations. He testified that both were performed while plaintiff was under a general anesthetic and that she suffered no pain during the operations and had only a minimum amount of postoperative discomfort; that all the scars are permanent and that plaintiff was deeply concerned about them. He stated that plaintiff had made a good recovery, both from the original lacerations and the subsequent surgery; that the surgery was successful and excellent results achieved; that he last saw plaintiff on July 12, 1967, and observed that the scars were maturing satisfactorily and he saw no need for further revision of them; that a person of light blonde complexion, such as plaintiff, will not have as much of a problem with scars as persons with dark skin; that with a person plaintiff's age the scars will become less noticeable as time passes.
Eight photographs of plaintiff's face were admitted in evidence. Four were takan at various angles a few days after the original repair of the lacerations. Two were taken shortly before the first plastic surgery, and two were taken immediately after the last plastic surgery operation. Plaintiff offered in evidence eleven color slides taken at the Medicial Center, some of them showing plaintiff's face shortly before the...
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