Trapnell v. City of Red Oak Junction
| Decision Date | 19 October 1888 |
| Citation | 76 Iowa 744,39 N.W. 884 |
| Parties | TRAPNELL v. CITY OF RED OAK JUNCTION. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from district court, Montgomery county; A. B. THORNELL, Judge.
Action by Emma J. Trapnell against the city of Red Oak Junction, for injuries alleged to have been occasioned by a defect in defendant's sidewalk. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.J. C. Cooper, J. M. Junkin, T. M. Hysham, and Smith McPherson, for appellant.
W. D. Strawn, for appellee.
1. Plaintiff, when walking on the sidewalk in question, in the night-time, fell, and was injured to some extent by the fall. The evidence tended to prove that the fall was occasioned by defects in the walk. On the evening of the accident, but thereafter, and on the next and following days, she complained of pains in her left breast, and she and members of her family applied liniment to relieve the pain. Some months afterwards it was discovered that the breast was enlarged and hardened, and in the mean time it had continued to be painful. Competent surgeons pronounced the disease sarcoma, a form of cancer, and upon their advice the breast was amputated. Experienced physicians, who were examined on the trial, gave it as their opinion that a blow or bruise might have been the exciting cause of the growth or enlargement of the breast, but that such result would have followed only in case the germ of the disease existed in the system before the injury. The district court directed the jury, in effect, that if they were satisfied by the evidencethat the growth or disease of the breast was occasioned by the fall, and the other elements of the case were proven, they should consider the value of the physicians' services in the amputation and subsequent treatment, and the pain and suffering and permanent disability caused thereby, in estimating plaintiff's damages. It was contended that there was no evidence before the jury which warranted the submission of these questions to them. Plaintiff did not testify that she received a blow or bruise on the breast in her fall, and we have been unable to find in the record any evidence which would warrant the finding that she did sustain such injury. True, it was proven that she suffered pain in the breast after her fall. But it was not proven that she had not suffered such pain before that. There was evidence, also, which tended to prove that the enlargement of the breast began after that, although plaintiff, who is the one most likely to know when it began, did not testify to that fact. But these facts, standing alone, do not prove that the breast was bruised or injured at the time of the fall. The physicians testify that the disease which...
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Kaiser v. St. Louis Transit Company
... ... LouisDecember 13, 1904 ... Appeal ... from St. Louis City Circuit Court.--Hon. Warwick Hough, ... AFFIRMED ... ... Railroad v. Johnson, 43 Ill.App. 83. The case of ... Trapnell v. Red Oak Junction, 76 Iowa 744, 39 N.W ... 884, seems to sustain the right to recover such ... ...
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Kaiser v. St. Louis Transit Co.
...be no recovery therefor;" citing the Pennsylvania case and Peoria, etc., Ry. v. Johns, 43 Ill. App. 83. The case of Trapnell v. Red Oak Junction, 76 Iowa, 744, 39 N. W. 884, seems to sustain the right to recover such damages. The precise question was decided in this state in Murray v. R. R.......
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Ewell v. Joe Bowers Min. Co.
...Mooney v. Lower Vein Coal Co., 8 N.W. (Iowa) 144 (652); Morrison v. Phillips and Colby Construction Co., 44 Wis. 411; Trappell v. City of Red Oak (Iowa), 39 N.W. 884; Cosgrove v. Pitman, 103 Cal. 273; Asbach Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co., 37 N.W. (Iowa), p. 183; Carruthers v. Chicago, R. I. & P.......
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Graham v. Ogden Union Ry. & Depot Co.
...was unable to give an opinion as to the cause of her injuries, the decision of the Supreme Court is not at all surprising. In Trapnell v. Red Oak Junction, supra, plaintiff, while walking on a sidewalk, was injured to extent by a fall. The next day and following days she complained of pain ......