Lynch v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 67 Wash. 113
• 120 P. 882
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 1128

Syllabus

<p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Excessive Verdict. A verdict for $23,895, reduced by tbe trial judge to $14,000, for injuries sustained by a locomotive engineer in a wreck, will not be disturbed on appeal as excessive, where he sustained a Pott’s fracture of the ankle and a fracture of the skull and a cut across the nose and cheek, resulting in impaired sight and hearing, in traumatic neurasthenia, permanent lameness, weakness and loss of health, there being no way to measure his earning capacity with exactness.</p> <p>Appeal — Review—Harmless Error — -Instructions. In a personal injury case, an irrelevant instruction going only to the measure of damages is not prejudicially erroneous, where the verdict was reduced by the trial judge in a substantial degree.</p> <p>Damages — Personal Injuries — Humiliation-—Instructions. In a personal injury case, an instruction authorizing the jury to consider injuries which render the plaintiff an object of pity or ridicule should not be given unless the injury is such as to shock the senses of fair-minded men or invite the unfeeling to ridicule.</p>