Odom v. Schmidt

• Decision Date: 01 June 1900
• Docket Number: 13,422
• Citation: 52 La.Ann. 2129,28 So. 350
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: JOHN ODOM v. RICHARD R. SCHMIDT

28 So. 350

52 La.Ann. 2129

JOHN ODOM v. RICHARD R. SCHMIDT

No. 13,422

Supreme Court of Louisiana

June 1, 1900

APPEAL from the Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans -- St Paul, J.

William C. McLeod, for Plaintiff, Appellee.

Andrew J. Murphy, for Defendant, Appellant.

OPINION

BLANCHARD J.

Plaintiff sues defendant for damages for personal injuries, claiming $ 4,500.00.

The case was tried without a jury.

From a judgment in favor of plaintiff for $ 300, defendant appeals. Plaintiff, by answer filed here, joins in the appeal and prays that the judgment in his favor be increased to the amount sued for.

The case may be stated thus:

Plaintiff was at the time of the accident 24 years old. He was in service as dining room servant and house boy, and he also attended to a horse and surrey kept on the premises, belonging to the son of his employer, and drove the surrey when in use.

The day before Christmas, in the year 1897, the daughter of his employer had occassion to visit the Poydras Market in the City of New Orleans for the purpose of doing some marketing. She ordered the surrey and plaintiff drove her to the market. This was in the forenoon. The market was reached about 10 o'clock. The surrey was driven close to the curb of the street on the market side. The young lady alighted and entered the market. Plaintiff with the surrey and horse remained there in waiting.

Between 10 and 12 o'clock, an hour or more after reaching the market, and while plaintiff was sitting on the front seat of the surrey, a float or large wagon, belonging to defendant, drawn by two mules, loaded with twenty-five barrels of flour and driven by a colored man named Andrew Bell, came along Poydras street, and in passing the surrey the hind wheel of the latter was struck by the hind wheel of the float, resulting in the surrey being overturned and the driver (plaintiff) being thrown out.

The surrey was more or less injured and was repaired at the expense of the owner of the float -- defendant herein.

Plaintiff at the time claimed no serious injury to himself, but, later, did so and his petition charges he was severely bruised and lacerated and that he received injuries of an internal character, causing him great pain and from which he still suffers.

He avers it to be a fact that these injuries have impaired his efficiency in the service in which he was engaged, and he has reason to fear that they will lessen permanently his ability to earn a livelihood.

An exception of vagueness of allegation and one of no cause of action disclosed having been overruled, defendant answered with a general denial.

A plan of the surroundings where the accident occurred shows the width of the street at that part to be nineteen feet, measuring from the sidewalk across the street to the edge of the market space.

Poydras Market divides Poydras Street longtitudinally. That is to say, the market house is located on an enlargement of the street at that point -- the roadway of the street running along either side of the market.

The accident in question occurred on the roadway on the uptown side of the market. The surrey was standing still at the time, the horse's head towards the river.

The wheels on the left of the vehicle...