Fletcher v. Wilmington Steamboat Co.

Citations

• 261 Pa. 1
• 104 A. 60
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 675

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Steamboats—Fogs—Collisions — Passengers— Case for jury.</p> <p>1. Unusual caution is required of those in charge of vessels passing through a fog.</p> <p>2. In añ action against a steamboat company for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff in consequence of a collision between a ferry boat and defendant’s steamboat upon which the plaintiff was a passenger, the case was for the jury where it appeared that the collision occurred in a dense fog and there was evidence that the captain of defendant’s steamboat failed to observe the regulations established by the government for boats in passing, as a result of which the accident occurred.</p> <p>Negligence — Damages—Evidence—Measure of damages — Present value — Expectancy.</p> <p>3. In an action for personal injuries, the admission of evidence as to the present value of money for different periods of expectancy-based upon total disability was not error where there was evidence of plaintiff’s earning power before she was injured, and that ¡she was totally disabled by the injuries which she sustained.</p> <p>4. In such case, the trial judge properly charged the jury, “If, however, you do not believe that she is totally incapacitated for work, but find as a fact, as one physician tells you, that she is now able to do light work, then you will consider compensation to her, instead of contemplating total loss of earning power, simply a diminution or lessening of earning power.”</p>