Trani v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corp.

Citation142 Conn. 541,116 A.2d 167
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
Decision Date05 July 1955
PartiesHelene M. TRANI v. ANCHOR HOCKING GLASS CORPORATION. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

William E. C. Bulkeley, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).

George Schwolsky, Hartford, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ., and DEVLIN, Superior Court Judge.

WYNNE, Justice.

The plaintiff sought damages in this action for personal injuries. Her claim arose out of an occurrence which took place during her employment at the plant of the Silver Lane Pickle Company in East Hartford. She was engaged in packing pickles in glass jars. Incident to the process she would, as she used each jar, tap it on a table in order to have the pickles she had placed in the jar settle down for better packing. She claims that as she tapped a particular jar in this manner it exploded into tiny fragments and the palm of her hand was seriously cut. Her action is against the manufacturer of the jar, a corporation having its plant in Ohio. Several grounds of negligence were alleged. The defendant denied fault on its part and alleged that the plaintiff was negligent in the manner in which she handled the jar and that any injury she sustained was due to her own negligence. The issues were tried to a jury, who returned a verdict for the plaintiff. A motion to set aside the verdict was denied, and the case is before us on the defendant's appeal.

The assignments of error attack the finding in a single particular. We will first consider this. The paragraph in question was concerned only with the claim that the jury had the right to infer that the injury to the plaintiff 'will last some time in the future.' It was this speculative element, bearing upon the extent of plaintiff's injury, that is the basis for the attack upon the court's charge, in which error is also assigned. A finding in a case tried to a jury is not a statement of facts which the court has found proven. Rather, it is a narrative of the facts claimed to have been proven by the parties, made for the purpose of presenting any claimed errors in the charge or rulings of the court. Fierberg v. Whitcomb, 119 Conn. 390, 392, 177 A. 135. It serves no useful purpose to seek corrections in the finding which would not make clearer the situation as related to the claimed errors. Voronelis v. White Line Bus Corporation, 123 Conn. 25, 27, 192 A. 265. Indeed, in the case before us, only the finding as made sufficiently presents the determinative issues as to the charge. We therefore have no need to consider further the correction sought.

The paragraphs in the court's charge which are attacked as erroneous bear exclusively on the jury's right to infer that the plaintiff's injury 'will last some time into the future.' Only that part of the charge as to damages is printed in the record. From this it appears that the court explained with meticulous care that the rule of damages is that the plaintiff is entitled to fair and just compensation. The court well said that the question is not a matter of speculation or of guesswork. The jury were told that they must be satisfied with a reasonable degree of certainty that the results for which they might attempt to compensate the plaintiff were reasonably probable. A charge must be 'correct in law, adapted to the issues and sufficient for the guidance of the jury.' Maltbie, Conn.App.Proc., § 48. Read as a whole, the charge an given met this test. Boland v. Vanderbilt, 140 Conn. 520, 522, 102 A.2d 362. The defendant makes the claim that there was no medical testimony upon which the jury could base an allowance of damages for future disability. The case differs from Hulk v. Aishberg, 126 Conn. 360, 11 A.2d 380, relied upon by the defendant. There, the plaintiff had a post-operative condition of the knee. Obviously, under those circumstances no one except an expert could have a reasonable and qualified opinion as to the probable future disability. The situation here was entirely different. The case was tried before the jury...

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17 cases
  • Ford v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut, Inc.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Connecticut
    • July 31, 1990
    ......40] PETERS, C.J., and SHEA, CALLAHAN, GLASS and HULL, JJ. .         [216 Conn. 41] HULL, ...468, 474, 123 A.2d 760 [1956].' [Id.]; Trani v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, 142 Conn. 541, 545, ......
  • State v. Brown
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Connecticut
    • May 3, 1972
    ...the evidentiary rulings would not be affected. See Fairbanks v. State, 143 Conn. 653, 655, 124 A.2d 893; Trani v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, 142 Conn. 541, 543, 116 A.2d 167. The state offered in evidence thirty bags of white powder and the testimony of the chief state toxicologist t......
  • Novella v. Hartford Acc. & Indem. Co.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Connecticut
    • July 27, 1972
    ...the trial court. Giambartolomei v. Rocky DeCarlo & Sons, Inc., 143 Conn. 468, 474, 123 A.2d 760.' Ibid.; Trani v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, 142 Conn. 541, 545, 116 A.2d 167; Zullo v. Zullo, 138 Conn. 712, 715, 89 A.2d From the evidence presented in the appendices to the briefs and t......
  • Rael v. F & S Co., Inc.
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of New Mexico
    • October 11, 1979
    ...166 Ky. 805, 179 S.W. 1043 (1915); Worez v. Des Moines City Ry. Co., 175 Iowa 1, 156 N.W. 867 (1916); Trani v. Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, 142 Conn. 541, 116 A.2d 167 (1955) (four years after occurrence); Sherman v. Frank, 63 Cal.App.2d 278, 146 P.2d 704 (1944) (expert proof not "We a......
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