Mounsey v. Bower

• Decision Date: 06 January 1922
• Docket Number: No. 11094.,11094.
• Citation: 133 N.E. 501
• Parties: MOUNSEY v. BOWER.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

133 N.E. 501

MOUNSEY

v.BOWER.

No. 11094.^*

Appellate Court of Indiana, Division No. 2.

Jan. 6, 1922.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Wells County; Frank W. Gordon, Judge.

Claim by Minta Bower against the estate of her mother, resisted by Mary A. Mounsey, administrator, etc. From a judgment for the claimant, the administrator appeals. Reversed, with instructions.

Simmons & Dailey and Virgil M. Simmons, all of Bluffton, for appellant.

Eichhorn & Edris, of Bluffton, for appellee.

NICHOLS, J.

Appellee filed her claim against the estate of appellant's decedent, who was her mother, asking an allowance against the estate of $1,200 for 24 weeks service at $50 per week, for nursing and caring for said decedent. There was an answer in denial, and a trial by jury, which resulted in a verdict for $960. After appellant's motion for a new trial was overruled, an order of allowance against the estate was rendered for the amount of the verdict. The error assigned is the court's action in overruling the motion for a new trial.

[1][2] The substantial question presented by the motion is as to whether the court erred in overruling appellant's objection to a hypothetical question propounded to Dr. J. O. Taylor, witness for appellee, which question embraced, among other elements, the following: That the person for whom services were rendered was afflicted with arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, for three years or more and had all of the attendant physical ills; that her limbs were badly swollen, so much so that the skin burst, requiring additional treating and care; that the nurse in charge furnished the food for the sick person, also for herself, and the fuel, and did the washing for the sick person, both of the bedding and clothes, and employed such help as was required, and paid the help with her own money. Appellant objected to the question for the reason that there was no evidence as to the foregoing hypothetical elements. The objection was overruled, whereupon the witness testified that such services as were described in the hypothetical question were worth from $50 to $60 per week.

We find no evidence that the decedent had been afflicted with arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, for three years or more, with all of its attendant ills; no evidence that the decedent, while with Mrs. Bowers, the appellee, had a dropsical condition that caused her limbs to swell so that the skin burst, requiring care and treatment; no evidence that appellee furnished food and fuel except as it may be inferred that she did so while the mother was in her home; no evidence that appellee employed such help as was required, and paid the help with her own money. There was no other evidence by appellee as to the value of her services. There was no evidence corroborating Dr. Taylor's evidence.

Amanda F. Meyers, a witness called by appellant, testified that she nursed the decedent in the year 1917, and that the value of services such as were required for her was $15.

Ellen Jane Borne, a witness for appellant, had been nursing for 15 years, and she thought that $15 would be reasonable compensation for such services as were required.

Dr. George E. Fulton, a medical practitioner for 40 years, testified that the value of such services as were required for the deceased would be from $12.50 to $15.00. We mention this testimony as to the value of services, not for the purpose of weighing the evidence, which is not our province, but to make it apparent that, assuming that all the witnesses intended to testify conscientiously, Dr. Taylor must have taken into consideration elements that the other witnesses did not consider, and because of the burden of such elements must have fixed the value of the services even greater than the value of the services of a trained nurse testified to by him. He testified that he took as facts all the elements of the question in answering as to the value of services. But some of the elements, if true, were not proven, as aforesaid, and hence could not be considered. Under these circumstances, the hypothetical question to Dr. Taylor, and his answers thereto, were of no value in fixing the compensation of appellee, and must have been misleading and prejudicial. There being no statement of appellee's counsel that he expected to furnish the required evidence, the objection to the question should have been sustained.

See Huston v. Roots, 30 Ind. 461;City of Warsaw v. Fisher, 24 Ind. App. 46, 55 N. E. 42;Taylor v. Taylor, 174 Ind. 670, 93 N. E. 9;Lehman v. Knott (Or.) 196 Pac. 476;Williams v. Brown, 28 Ohio St. 547;Pittsburg, etc., R. Co. v. Moore, 110 Ill. App. 304;Snyder v. Zeller, 113 Ill. App. 34;Pierson v. Chi., etc., R. Co., 116 Iowa, 601, 88 N. W. 363;Burnett v. Wilmington, etc., R. Co., 120 N. C. 517, 26 S. E. 819; McDonald v. R. I., etc., R. Co., 26 R. I. 467, 59 Atl. 391;Taylor v. Taylor, 174 Ind. 670, 93 N. E. 9. In the last case cited the court says:

“If facts are assumed in a hypothetical question which are clearly so exaggerated as to impair the opinion, or are such manifest assumptions as to be misleading, confusing and aside the evidence, or fair inferences from the evidence, it should be excluded, and their admission might be a prejudicial error in a given [or specific] case.”

Other authorities to the same effect are: Schnetzky v. Zanto (Wis.) 182 N. W. 757; Levine v....