Glasco v. Green

Citations

• 273 Pa. 353
• 117 A. 79
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 577

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Practice, G. P. — Trial—Point for charge — Proximate and remote cause — Disease following accident — Burden of proof — Evidence—Death.</p> <p>1. Where a point submitted contains an abstract proposition of law upon an assumed fact, it is for the court to determine the legal truth of the conclusion from the assumed fact, and the point should be affirmed or refused without qualification.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover for death of plaintiff’s husband, the burden is on plaintiff to prove the accident was the proximate or proximate predisposing cause of the death and not merely the remote cause; it might be the latter if resulting from influenza contracted by deceased while confined in a hospital by reason of the injury, yet that would not render defendant liable for the death.</p> <p>3. A judgment on a verdict for plaintiff in such case will be reversed where the instructions may have misled the jury by failing to distinguish between the proximate and remote cause.</p> <p>4. An act may in some way be connected with a result of which it is not the proximate or proximate predisposing cause.</p> <p>Negligence — Improper remarles of counsel — Improper statements as to damages — Withdrawal of juror — Damages—Practice, G. P.— New trial.</p> <p>5. Where counsel in addressing the jury makes an unfounded claim for damages, which the president judge fails to correct, the verdict should be set aside.</p> <p>6. In an action for death of plaintiff’s husband, a verdict for plaintiff will be reversed, where it appears that the trial judge failed to charge that the verdict should be limited to so much of the husband’s future earnings as would have gone to the support of his family.</p>