Saunders v. Pittsburgh Railways Co.

Citations

• 252 Pa. 79
• 97 A. 123
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 572

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Damages—Loss of earning capacity — Evidence — • Charge of court.</p> <p>1. The ground on which one is entitled to recover for loss of earning capacity is what the party not only can earn but probably, will earn, to the extent of his or her capacity.</p> <p>2. In a negligence ease where the plaintiff, a woman fifty-eight years of age, testified that before the accident she had an earning power of not less than eight or nine dollars a week, but that prior thereto she had entered into an arrangement with her son by which she was to receive five dollars monthly if she did not go out to work, it was error for the court to refuse to permit defendant’s counsel to cross-examine her as to the length of time her son intended to continue that arrangement, for the purpose of showing what her future earning capacity would be, as affecting the amount of damages recoverable by both her and her husband.</p> <p>3. In such case the court erred in charging that plaintiff would be entitled to recover for the loss of her earnings, whatever they were worth, from the date of the accident to the time of the trial, and for any such earnings in the future, regardless of the arrangement which the plaintiff had with her son.</p> <p>4. In such case where the trial judge instructed the jury to ascertain the present worth of plaintiff’s future earnings and’defendant’s counsel made no request for further instructions, defendant was not in a position to subsequently raise the question as to the inadequacy of the charge on that point.</p>