Faber v. Gimbel Bros.
Faber v. Gimbel Bros.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Plaintiff sued to recover damages for injuries sustained from being run over by defendant’s motor truck. The trial resulted in a verdict in plaintiff’s favor. It is conceded the question of responsibility for the accident was one for the jury, and the only .questions discussed in this appeal relate to the measure of damages.
The facts are as follows: Plaintiff was engaged in repairing automobile radiators in partnership with another. Both members of the firm gave their entire time to the business, and together performed all repair work entrusted to them. The capital invested was $800, which was expended for necessary tools, fixtures and materials, each contributing one-half the required amount. Plaintiff testified he realized from $35 to $40 a week from the business after all expenses were deducted, and as a result of his injuries was unable to perform work requiring physical strength, but visited his place of business, with more or less regularity, with the aid of crutches. The firm was dissolved shortly after the accident, plaintiff purchasing the interest of the partner for $150, the partner also receiving a portion of the tools used in the business. Following the dissolution of the firm plaintiff employed a workman whom he paid $20 a week and had left from $10 to $15 weekly for himself, as the net earnings of his business.
Defendant objected to this testimony as proof of earning capacity, averring it permitted a plaintiff to show net profits derived from a business, contrary, as alleged, to the general rule of law heretofore laid down by this court. It is apparent, however, that returns from business, under the circumstances of this case, were not profits in a technical sense derived from investment of
Objection is made to the admission in evidence of a table showing the present values of a fixed sum of money payable in weekly installments during a period of years from one to twenty-nine, the latter being the expectation of life of plaintiff according to the mortality tables. Appellant concedes tables of this character are competent in a proper case, in view of the language of this court in Seeherman v. Wilkes-Barre Co., 255 Pa. 11, 17, and the rulings in Fletcher v. Wilmington Steam Boat Co., 261 Pa. 1, 6. But it is argued that the principles stated in those decisions should be limited to total disability. No adequate reason is given for making the distinction suggested and on principle none appears to exist. In either case, the question to be answered is merely the present value of such sum of money as the jury may
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Faber v. Gimbel Brothers
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Damages — Personal injury — Decreased earning power — Person engaged in a small business — Profits—Evidence. 1. Evidence of earnings from a small business in which the plaintiff was engaged as a partner before and after the accident, is admissible to show decreased earning power as the result of an injury, where it appears that the business, which had only a nominal capital, required plaintiff’s entire time, labor and skill and had no earning power except that resulting from profits from such labor and,skill, since in no other way could the decreased earning power be shown. Negligence — Damages—Present value tables — Actions for personal injuries — Partial disability — Evidence — Inaccurate use of tables — Bemarks of counsel. 2. Tables showing the present value of a fixed sum of money payable in weekly installments during a period of years representing the expectation of life of the plaintiff, according to the mortality tables, are admissible in evidence in actions for damages for personal injuries resulting in partial impairment of earning capacity, as well as in eases of total disability. 3. An inaccurate use of figures by counsel in addressing the jury as to the use of the value tables, is not ground for reversal, where it does not appear that the jury were misled, or that they adopted the method used by counsel in his illustration, and it did appear that the jury had the tables before them in their deliberations, and that they could see for themselves at a glance, the present value of a sum of money for a given number of years.