Oakes v. Maine Cent. R. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 February 1901 |
| Citation | 49 A. 418,95 Me. 103 |
| Parties | OAKES v. MAINE CENT. R. CO. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
(Official.)
Exceptions from supreme judicial court, Penobscot county.
Action by Alonzo P. Oakes against the Maine Central Railroad Company to recover for the death of plaintiff's intestate. Defendant was defaulted, and the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for $3,500. Motion for a new trial, and exceptions by defendant. Molion sustained on condition.
Argued before WISWELL, C. J., and EMERY, WHITEHOUSE, SAVAGE, FOGLER, and POWERS, JJ.
W. B. Peirce and Hugo Clark, for plaintiff.
C. F. Woodard, for defendant.
POWERS, J. Action under St 1891, c. 124, for, the exclusive benefit of Roland E. Oakes, the child of plaintiff's intestate.
1. Defendant excepts to the admission of the testimony of Mrs. Clark as to the amount of wages which the deceased was receiving when employed as a milliner some 11 years before her death.
The damages in this class of cases can never be the subject of precise mathematical demonstration or calculation. They are based upon the probabilities of the future, which can only be shown by the facts of the past. Evidence is received in regard to many matters which in other actions for personal injuries are irrelevant or immaterial. The age, health, occupation, means, habits, capacity, education, temperament, character, and other similar facts relating to the deceased were admissible as tending to show her probable pecuniary usefulness to the beneficiary. The earning capacity of the deceased was an important consideration, and this necessarily included not only her physical ability to labor, but the probabilities of her being able to obtain profitable employment She was a milliner, and the spring and fall immediately preceding her marriage worked at her trade for Mrs. Clark. After her marriage from time to time she did some millinery work at her own home, but her labor for Mrs. Clark was her last employment at weekly wages. Shortly before her death she had had an offer of employment in a millinery shop, which she declined, as she did not want to leave her child; and it does not appear that at tills time the amount of wages was named. She was in good health, and there was some reason to believe that she might survive her husband. In that event there was a probability, more or less strong, that she might seek by her former trade to gain a livelihood for herself and the beneficiary. Evidence of the wages she received the last time she was employed at that trade was properly...
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Robinson v. Dixon
...Interpreting this statute, the Maine court has held that under it there may be no recovery of punitive damages (Oakes v. Maine Cent. Railroad Co., 95 Me. 103, 49 A. 418), or for the pain and suffering of the decedent (McCarthy v. Claflin, 99 Me. 290, 59 A. 293), that there can be no recover......
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Jacobsen v. Poland, 34049
...a partnership formed for carrying on his trade as a skilled workman 15 years before his death was admissible.' In Oakes v. Maine Central R. Co., 95 Me. 103, 49 A. 418, 419, testimony was admitted, over objections, as to the wages the deceased received as a milliner 11 years before her death......
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Dostie v. Lewiston Crushed Stone Co.
...proper place in the award. Carrier v. Bornstein, 136 Me. 1, 1 A.2d 219; Williams v. Hoyt, 117 Me. 61, 102 A. 703; Oakes v. Maine Central Railroad Co., 95 Me. 103, 49 A. 418; McKay v. New England Dredging Co., 92 Me. 454, 43 A. 29. In ordinary cases, the compensatory damages which may be awa......