Cannon v. Brooklyn City Railroad

This is an appeal from an order denying a motion for a new trial, and from a judgment entered upon a verdict for $12,500, in favor of plaintiff, for personal injuries claimed to have been caused by the negligence of defendant. The appellant insists upon a reversal for many reasons, which, taken up in their order as presented in the points, brings us first to the consideration of whether the verdict is excessive. Upon a critical examination of the testimony, we find evidence which the jury were justified in believing, and which establishes that plaintiff received injuries in this accident, to her womb, bladder, ovary, and surrounding parts, of a most serious character, causing her great pain and suffering, and disabling her for the performance of the ordinary duties and work which she had been accustomed to do before the accident; that there has been a falling, retroversion, and retroflexion of the womb, and inflammation of the surrounding parts; and that the injuries to her genital organs are permanent and incurable. This court does not disagree with the jury in its estimate of a fair and just compensation for such serious injuries. No error can be predicated upon the exception at folio 58, for it was proper for plaintiff to show that her injured womb had become enlarged; none upon the one at folios 70 and 71, because the question was not answered; none upon those at folios 76-78 and 282, for it was especially proper for the expert physician, who examined the displacement, falling, retroversion,-and retroflexion of her womb, to testify as to whether the injury was recent or of long standing, and as to whether it was curable or incurable, Lindsay v. People, 63 N. Y. 143 ; Buel v. N. Y. C. Railroad Co., 31 N. Y. 314 , 320; Filer v. N. Y. C. Railroad Co., 49 N. Y. 42 ; none upon the one at folios 91-93, for it was shown that, after the accident, her menstruation was stopped for two months, and she certainly had the right to testify that on its return she suffered great pain and spasms ; none upon those at folios 184 and 185 and 277-279,—the pessary, which is sometimes used successfully to support a falling womb, had been tried, and with benefit to her for a time, but it finally caused her so much pain that its use was discontinued, and this rendered it proper for the expert physician to explain that the pessary pressed upon the walls of the vagina while supporting the womb, and that, in the condition of the parts surrounding the womb, it was inadvisable to use this' instrument; none upon those at folios 186, 189, 190, 285, and 289,—if some of the facts assumed in the hypothetical questions were not justified by the proof, then the objecting counsel should have called the attention of the court to the assumptions which he deemed unwaranted, and this he failed to do, Hall v. Crouse, 13 Hun, 557 , 562, and, besides the assumptions seem to have been within the probable range of the evidence. Harnett v. Garvey, 66 N. Y. 641 ; Stearns v. Field, 90 N. Y. 640 ; none upon that at folio 236, for the expert physician can properly testify that a blow upon the stomach is sufficient to cause a retroversion of the womb, Turner v. City of Newburgh, 109 N. Y. 301 , 309 ; 15 St. Rep. 93 ; Stouter v. Man. Railway Co., 127 N. Y. 661 ; 38 St. Rep. 162 ; none upon those at folios 301, 302, 305, 807, 316, 321, 323. 329, 335. 342, 345.