Mosley v. Dati

• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: SOURIS; DETHMERS
• Citation: Mosley v. Dati, 363 Mich. 690, 110 N.W.2d 637 (Mich. 1961)
• Decision Date: 21 September 1961
• Docket Number: No. 11,A,11
• Parties: Ledell MOSLEY, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Vidio DATI and Florence M. Dati, jointly and severally, Defendants and Appellees. pril Term.

Page 637

110 N.W.2d 637

363 Mich. 690

Ledell MOSLEY, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Vidio DATI and Florence M. Dati, jointly and severally Defendants and Appellees.

No. 11, April Term.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Sept. 21, 1961.

Roy De Gesero, Saginaw, for appellant.

Smith, Brooker & Harvey, Saginaw, for appellees.

Before the Entire Bench.

SOURIS, Justice (for reversal).

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment based upon a jury verdict in the precise amount of his medical expenses incurred as a result of injuries suffered when the car in which he was sitting was struck from the rear by defendants' car. He charges that the verdict was grossly inadequate because it did not award him damages for his pain and suffering and for loss of earnings.

In Fordon v. Bender, 363 Mich. 124 and 126, 108 N.W.2d 896, decided last April, we reversed a judgment for inadequacy of a jury verdict in a personal injury case because the great weight of the evidence compelled an award of damages for pain and suffering and because failure to award such damages by returning a verdict equal only to plaintiff's special damages manifested disregard by the jury of proper instructions given by the court.

We are compelled to reach the same result in the case at bar and for the same reasons. There was evidence from plaintiff that he suffered pain immediately after the impact at the scene of the injury and a policeman testified that, indeed, plaintiff then complained of pain. Plaintiff also testified of his various pains, dizziness, headaches and shortness of breath from the date of injury to the date of trial. His doctor confirmed his continuing complaints of pain and testified that pre-existing scoliosis and arthritis could have been aggravated, with resulting pain, by the injury to plaintiff. Defendants' doctor testified that he found tenderness in plaintiff's dorsal spine, where the scoliosis and...