Gosh v. Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co.

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 63
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 73

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Parent and child — Nonresident aliens — Adult son —Parental relation — Proof of age — Act of June 7,1911, P. L. 678, and Act of June 2,1891, Art. XIV, Sec. 1, P. L. 176.</p> <p>In an action brought by nonresident alien parents, in their own name, to recover damages for the death of their son, where the plaintiffs allege in their statement of claim that although the son was over twenty-one years of age, the family relation between them still existed, and it is shown to the court that under the laws of the plaintiffs’ country, the age of majority was twenty-four years, the plaintiffs do not prove themselves out of court, or establish a material variance between the allegata and probata by offering in evidence a power of attorney to another person to sue in their name, in which it is averred that their son was a minor; and this is the case (1) because the plaintiffs’ case in chief in no way depended on the contents of the letter of attorney, as their suit was brought in their own names, and (2) because under the circumstances it could in no way have been declared as a matter of law that the statement of the parents in describing the personality of their son was a conclusive admission of a fact which destroyed their cause.</p> <p>In such a case there is sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the son was. over the age of twenty-one, where the court properly admits in evidence a notice required under Sec. 1, Article IV, of the Act of June 2, 1891, P. L. 176, filed with the inspector of mines, in which the deceased’s age is stated to be twenty-two ■years; and where an aunt of the deceased testifies that he had lived with- her for ten years prior to the time of his death; that he had been brought to her from Europe when a boy by his godmother, who then stated his age to be twelve years. The admission of the declarations of the godmother is harmless error in such a case in view of other uneontradieted evidence of the fact that the deceased was more tha