Samarra v. Allegheny Valley Street Railway Co.

Citations

• 238 Pa. 469
• 86 A. 287
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 995

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railway companies — Fright—Physical in-fury — Instructions to fury — Compensation for pain and suffering.</p> <p>1. In an action by a husband and wife to recover damages for personal injuries to the latter alleged to have been sustained by her while a passenger on one of defendant’s street ears when for some cause the car left the track, the question of defendant’s liability for the injuries is for the jury where it appears by the testimony of the plaintiff and her daughter, who was also a passenger, that she was thrown violently to the floor by the sudden jar, and was for a time rendered unconscious; that her person within a very short time thereafter showed extensive marks of external violence, and that as a consequence of these injuries, physical disability, in the nature of neuritis, resulted; and her attending physician testified that in his judgment her disability resulted from the injuries.</p> <p>2. In such a case it is not error for the trial court, in answering defendant’s point that “there can be no recovery for conditions produced by nervous shock or fright,” to say to the jury, “there can be no recovery for nervous shock unaccompanied by physical injury, but if the nervous shock follows as the result of physical injury, then the nervous shock is a part of the physical injury, and plaintiff is entitled to recover for that.”</p> <p>3. In such a case it is not error for the court to instruct the jury that the husband was entitled to compensation for loss of the services of his wife, “to the extent of his loss, in money” and “to the extent that he is damaged through the loss of her services, he is entitled to recover for loss in the future,” where the court also instructs the jury that it is only the present woi^h of the money which can be recovered.</p> <p>4. In Such a case it is not error for the court to instruct the jury that the plaintiff was entitled to be compensated “for the pain and suffering which she will endure in the futu