Collins v. Leafey

Citations

• 124 Pa. 203
• 23 W.N.C. 264
• 16 A. 765
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1022

Syllabus

<p>1. A rule of court providing that the several matters in the charge to which exception is taken shall be distinctly stated before the jury has retired and that no general exception to the whole charge shall be allowed, may be enforced or relaxed in the discretion of the court below.</p> <p>2. Where a general exception has been sealed to the entire charge, bringing it regularly before this court for consideration, and afterwards the parts excepted to are separately and specifically assigned as error, there is a substantial conformity with the rules of this court relating to assignments of error.</p> <p>3. An inaccurate recital or reference to the testimony, in a review of the evidence by the trial judge, is not cause for reversal, unless as a whole it is substantially erroneous and might have had an important bearing upon the view taken of the case by the jury.</p> <p>4. A liberal discretion must be allowed to the trial judge, in the use of comment upon the unexplained absence of testimony which might naturally be looked for in a case, as he is in far better position than a court of error to determine the occasion for it</p> <p>5. As the law does not make one an insurer against accidents, it is error to charge in an action for negligence, that “ it is the duty of every one who occupies the highway to do so with such care that no injury can happen to any one.”</p> <p>6. In cases of personal injury involving pain and suffering, it is error to charge that there is no rule of law to assist the jury in arriving at a conclusion, instead of laying down in most explicit terms the’ limitation of their verdict to compensation, and compensation alone.</p>