Southwestern Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. Rogers
| Decision Date | 02 February 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 34424,34424 |
| Citation | 267 P.2d 572 |
| Parties | SOUTHWESTERN GREYHOUND LINES, Inc., et al. v. ROGERS. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. Amount of damages recoverable in personal injury cases is a fact question for the jury; and where, as in the instant case, the testimony tends to prove that a greater amount for compensatory damages for personal injuries than that returned by the jury (and approved by the trial court) might have been found due, the verdict will not be set aside, reduced or modified on the ground that it was excessive or unreasonable and given under the influence of passion and prejudice.
2. The statute allowing punitive (exemplary) damages is highy penal, and punishment thereunder should not be lightly imposed, but such damages, being for punishment and example, should be assessed with caution.
3. A bus company as a common carrier of persons for hire, must use the utmost care and diligence for their safe carriage, and where defendants' bus driver not only failed to make an examination of the flood water before driving into it at a time when other cars were stalled and abandoned in said flood, and where such driver disregarded the warning of a person who had driven a car down into the flood water and was then backing the car out of the flood water as well as the warning of plaintiff and other passengers, and heedlessly and negligently drove the bus into the flood water where it became submerged, such action constitutes a basis for punitive damages. We hold, however, that under the circumstances of this case that a judgment for $4000 as punitive damages in addition to the compensatory damages is excessive and same is reduced to $500.
Draper Grisby, Oklahoma City, Meacham, Meacham, Meacham & Meacham, Clinton, for plaintiffs in error.
Arney & Barker, Clinton, for defendant in error.
The parties herein will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.
The plaintiff, Lois Rogers, brought suit for damages caused to her person and property when the defendant, Southwestern Greyhound Lines, Inc., et al., after allegedly being warned by plaintiff, et al., not to do so, negligently and carelessly drove one of its buses into a flooded stream and thereby submerged it in the water while the plaintiff was a paid passenger thereon. Plaintiff recovered a verdict and judgment, from which defendants appeal.
Defendants present their contentions of error under three proposition, which are, in substance, first, that the damages are excessive because given under influence of passion and prejudice. Second, that the court erred in giving instructions Nos. 16 and 17, and third, that the trial court erred in submitting the question of exemplary damages to the jury and in permitting plaintiff to recover exemplary damages.
The plaintiff was awarded as compensatory damages $5000 for pain and suffering and medical expense, $450 for loss of personal property and money, $1500 for loss of earnings, and $4000 exemplary damages.
Amount of recovery in action for damages is a fact question for the jury, City of Norman v. Lewis, 180 Okl. 344, 69 P.2d 377, subject, if excessive, to correction by the trial court or by this Court on appeal. Safe-Way Cab Service Co. v. Gadberry, 180 Okl. 51, 67 P.2d 434; but where, as in the instant case, the testimony tends to prove that a greater amount for compensatory damages than that returned by the jury (and approved by the trial court) might have been found due, the verdict will not be set aside on the ground that it is excessive or unreasonable and given under the influence of passion and prejudice, Shobe v. Sykes, 169 Okl. 491, 37 P.2d 908; Magnolia Pipe Line Co. v. Brown, 195 Okl. 345, 157 P.2d 184. Held, compensatory damages under the record herein, are not excessive.
Relative to allowance of punitive damages herein, the statute allowing punitive damages is highly penal, and punishment thereunder should not be lightly imposed. Shobe v. Sykes, supra. In this connection the defendants urge that the $4000 exemplary damages awarded in this case is excessive and disproportionate, conceding however, that the amount of such damages is largely discretionary with...
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