Monge v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co.
Monge v. New Orleans Ry. & Light Co.
Opinion of the Court
' The 20 months old girl of the plaintiffs was struck by one of the electric cars of the defendant company, and had both bones of one of her legs broken just above the ankle, and the skin at that place “all torn,” and one arm broken just below the shoulder; and the present suit is in damages for the injuries thus suffered by the child, and to recover the expenses incident to the treatment of the child. The child is said to have suffered a good deal, and not to have been able to walk for some 60 days. The bones knit perfectly, and at the time of the trial no sign of the injury remained. The jury awarded $2,190.. As $190 was the’ amount claimed for the expenses, we take it that $2,000 of this award was for the injuries, and $190 for the expenses.
The three eyewitnesses of plaintiffs left the case in a very unsatisfactory condition. The testimony of one of them, a sister of Mrs. Monge, is so full of contradictions, and reticences, as to have to be disregarded altogether. Another of these witnesses, a discharged employé of the defendant company, and at one time in the jitney business, shows also a good many inconsistencies with itself and with other testimony manifestly more reliable. The third of these witnesses would make out against the motorman a case of such utter negligence as to be actually criminal, and incredible; and his testimony, moreover, on the important} point of his having been the person who carried the child into the house, as to which he could not well have been mistaken, is at flat contradiction
The judgment appealed from is set aside, and it is now ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Cannon Monge, have judgment, for the use and benefit of their child, Mildred Monge, against the New Orleans Railway & Bight Company, and J. B. O’Keefe, receiver of the properties of said company, in the sum of $2,000, with 5 per cent, interest thereon per annum from February 18, 1918, and the costs of this suit; and that the suit of the said plaintiffs be otherwise dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MONGE v. NEW ORLEANS RY. & LIGHT CO.
- Cited By
- 12 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) 1. Street Railroads A motorman, seeing a two year old child 'by itself on a street less than eight feet from the car track, should take all necessary precautions for guarding against the possibility of the child going suddenly on the track, and, in the case where a motorman failed to take such precaution and the child was injured, the verdict finding the street car company negligent was warranted. '2. Parent and Child A mother, who allowed her two year old child to wander off to a narrow street upon which cars were known to travel fast, is culpably negligent, and, where the child was struck by a car and injured, the parents cannot recover expenses of medical treatment which they were obliged to furnish. .3. Damages An award of $2,000 in favor of a 20 months old child, who had both bones of one of her legs broken just above the ankle, and one arm broken just below the shoulder, and was not able to walk for about 60 days, held not so excessive as to be disturbed by the appellate court.