Sullivan v. Gulf & S. I. R. Co

• Decision Date: 26 February 1923
• Docket Number: 23000
• Citation: 95 So. 306,131 Miss. 136
• Parties: SULLIVAN v. GULF & S. I. R. CO
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

95 So. 306

131 Miss. 136

SULLIVAN v. GULF & S. I. R. CO

No. 23000

Supreme Court of Mississippi

February 26, 1923

September, 1922

DAMAGES. Three hundred and fifty dollars for injuries sustained by passenger in fall held not inadequate under evidence.

In railway passenger's action for injuries claimed to have been sustained from a fall while disembarking, where defendant's evidence tended to show that, if she received any injury at all, it was insignificant, and that the serious injuries shown by her testimony were attributable to other causes, a judgment for three hundred and fifty dollars was not inadequate.

HON. W. H. HUGHES, Judge.

Appeal from circuit court of Covington county, HON. W. H. HUGHES, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Bessie Sullivan against the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company. From a judgment for plaintiff for an insufficient amount, she appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed.

E. L. Dent, W. A. Dent and Hirsh, Dent & Landau, for appellant.

B. E. Eaton and J. T. Willis for appellee.

OPINION

ANDERSON, J.

Appellant, Mrs. Bessie Sullivan, sued appellee, Gulf & Ship Island Railroad Company, for damages for a personal injury alleged to have been received by her while a passenger on appellee's road from Braxton to Saratoga, stations situated on said road, and recovered a judgment for three hundred and fifty dollars. Appellant moved the court for a new trial on the question of damages alone on the ground that the damages awarded by the jury were grossly inadequate to compensate her for the injury she suffered. The court overruled said motion, and appellant thereupon prosecuted this appeal.

It is true according to the evidence of appellant as to the extent of her injuries that the damages awarded her by the jury are grossly inadequate. On the other hand, the evidence on behalf of appellee tended to show that, if appellant received an injury at all, it was insignificant; that the serious injuries which she suffered, according to her testimony and that of her witnesses, was attributable, not to the fall she got in disembarking from appellee's train, but from entirely other causes. The jury therefore were authorized under appellee's evidence to find, as they did, that appellant was injured through the fault of appellee, but that her injury was not serious, but slight. So viewing the case, it cannot be said that the damages awarded by the jury are inadequate.

Affirmed.