Wright v. Eastern Live Poultry Co.

• Decision Date: 08 March 1955
• Docket Number: 21996,Nos. 22173,s. 22173
• Citation: 112 A.2d 895,19 Conn.Supp. 312
• Court: Connecticut Superior Court
• Parties: Helen WRIGHT et al., Administrators (Estate of Ida Wright) v. EASTERN LIVE POULTRY CO. et al. Wilho E. WIRTA, Administrator (Estate of Carol Wirta) v. EASTERN LIVE POULTRY CO. et al.

Page 895

112 A.2d 895

19 Conn.Supp. 312

Helen WRIGHT et al., Administrators (Estate of Ida Wright) v. EASTERN LIVE POULTRY CO. et al.

Wilho E. WIRTA, Administrator (Estate of Carol Wirta) v. EASTERN LIVE POULTRY CO. et al.

Nos. 22173, 21996.

Superior Court of Connecticut, New London County.

March 8, 1955.

Louis C. Wool, New London, for plaintiffs in No. 22173.

Gilman, Jacobson & Laudone, Norwich, for plaintiffs in No. 21996.

Day, Berry & Howard, Hartford, for the defendant Eastern Live Poultry Co. in both cases.

McGuire & McGuire, New London, for the defendant Lester Long in both cases.

TROLAND, Judge.

On December 14, 1953, Ida Wright and Carol Wirta, young girls living in the small town of Voluntown, were en route to high school in Jewett City as passengers in the school bus furnished by the town of Voluntown, owned and operated by the defendant Long. At a turn in the road the school bus and a truck owned by the defendant Eastern Live Poultry Company were in a violent collision. Several of the passengers received serious injuries. Ida Wright and Carol Wirta were killed instantly. These children were schoolmates in the first year of high school. Each was of the age of fourteen, with a life expectancy of 46.16 years.

The above entitled cases were tried together. The defendants have admitted liability. The problem before the court is to determine 'just damages' for the deaths of two young girls.

Facts developed on the trial relevant to the assessment of damages include the following: Ida Wright, was a happy, healthy girl. She was five and one-half feet tall, weighed 140 pounds. She was of very good appearance and of pleasing personality. She was interested in school work, participated in athletics, and also took part in the church and Sunday school life in her community. She was a member of the Youth Group, a church organization, and also of the Grange, and the 4-H Club. Ida Wright evidenced considerable musical talent and had taken piano lessons for about a year and a half. She played hymns at Sunday school, did grade three work in music and was considered by her music teacher a good pupil, above average. Ida was ambitious. She had a weekly newspaper route from which she earned $1.50 a week. She was considered by her teachers a good average American girl. In high school she was taking a commercial course, and in all probability she would have been seeking employment in secretarial work in about four years if she had lived.

Carol Wirta was a happy, healthy girl. She was about five feet three inches tall and weighed about 103 pounds. She was attractive and of pleasing personality. She had considerable musical telent and had taken piano lessons for about a year and a half from the same teacher as Ida Wright, and they were equally accomplished. Carol also had a definite artistic talent, had taken art lessons and produced better than average work. In high school Carol was taking a college preparatory course. She was a student of honor quality, a superior student. Plans for her future, which seemed probable of fulfilment, envisaged for her, art courses of college grade. It seemed probable that she would not be seeking employment for about eight years, had she lived.

Each of the girls described above was fortunate in living in homes where they were receiving loving care and attention, and in the small community where they resided they were enjoying mutual friends and to a large extent participating in similar activities.

Carol Wirta lived with her parents, substantial, healthy, prosperous people. Her father is a poultry raiser, who owns his own farm and who could afford to send his daughter to college and had planned to do so.

Ida Wright did not know her real parents. Ida Wright lived with foster parents. At the age of two she came under the care of the commissioner of welfare as his ward. Since 1945 she lived with Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Campbell of Voluntown, who accepted her into their faimily as their own child, and under whose loving care she thrived and developed into the happy, healthy, accomplished girl described above. The Campbells...