Trout v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 66 Pa. Super. 330
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 257

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Damages—Erroneous instruction as to liability as affecting damages. (</p> <p>An erroneous instruction as to defendant’s liability in a negligence ease will not be considered on appeal as having influenced the jury, so that although a verdict was entered against the defendant the improper instructions may in some way have caused a reduction of the verdict. The presumption is that the jury arrived at its conclusion as to the. amount of the damages by a consideration of the testimony bearing upon that subject, and not through any other consideratioh.</p> <p>Negligence — Damages—Loss of earning power — Evidence.</p> <p>In a negligence case the evidence is not sufficient to justify a jury in allowing anything for the loss of earning power, where it is in effect that the plaintiff with his wife’s assistance carried on a flower business; that he had a net income therefrom *of about $1,000 per annum; that after the accident he sold the business for an amount (not stated), because of a temporary mental condition, and thereafter assisted his father in butchering and receiving $8.00 per week; but without any evidence of the capital invested in the flower business, or what portion of his income was the result of his own labors as distinguished from the capital invested, and without any evidence that he was not able at the time of the trial to carry on'the flower business.</p>