Litton v. Woliver
Litton v. Woliver
Opinion of the Court
after making the foregoing statement, delivered the following opinion of the court:
The single question we need to pass upon, among those raised by the assignments of error, is the following:
The only authority cited for the- plaintiff which in the holding sustains his contention that other than compensatory damages may be recovered in a case of mere sexual-intercourse—that is, .of such intercourse not accomplished by seduction—is that of Barbour v. Stephenson (U. S. C. C. Dist. of Ky.), 32 Fed. 66. The report of that case gives only the charge of the trial judge. There is frequent reference in the charge to the case being one of “seduction,” to the “person seduced,” “the wrongful act of seducing her,” “such an injury,” etc. The only issue in the case seems to have been over the identity of the person who seduced the daughter and not over the question of whether the intercourse was accomplished by seduction. It is true, however, that, in the course of the charge, language is used to the effect that seduction was not necessary to sustain a -recovery of damages because of the “wounded feelings” of the plaintiff, but no authority is cited to sustain that proposition, and, as we have seen above, the case is in direct conflict with the holding of all the other authorities on the subject which have been called to our attention. And in our view such case is on this point unsound in principle and we cannot give it our approval.
The case of Lipe v. Eisenlerd, 32 N. Y. 229, cited for
Since there was testimony for the defendant in the case before us which, if credited by the jury, was sufficient to have shown that he was not guilty of the seduction charged in the declaration, all consideration of which evidence was taken from the jury by the instructions in question, the giving of such instructions constitutes reversible error.
Therefore, the case must be reversed and a new trial granted to the defendant, to be had not in conflict with the views expressed in this opinion.
Reversed.
Reference
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- 1. Seduction—Damages—Punitive Damages.—In an action by a father for the seduction of his daughter, it was error on the part of the trial court to instruct the jury that the plaintiff was entitled to recover, because of mere sexual intercourse of the defendant with his daughter, not accomplished by seduction under the promise of marriage or by other artifice, damages for wounded feelings and affections, etc., and punitive or exemplary damages, in addition to compensatory damages for loss of the services of the daughter and for the expenditures alleged in the declaration. And where there was testimony for the defendant which, if credited by the jury, was sufficient to have shown that he was not guilty of the seduction charged in the declaration, an instruction which took from the jury all consideration of this evidence, constituted reversible error. 2. Seduction-—Declaration—Sufficiency.—In an action for seduction, an allegation that the defendant “debauched and carnally knew” the daughter is an allegation, not merely of sexual intercourse, but of such intercourse accomplished by seduction— that is, by -aid of enticement through “arts, promises, or deception.” 3. Words and Phrases—“Debauch.”—“To debauch” means to seduce and violate a woman; “to corrupt with lewdness; bring to be guilty of unchastity, deprave, seduce, as to debauch a woman.” 4. Seduction—Loss of Services as Basis of the Action at Common Law—§2896 Code of 1904—Sexual Intercourse Without Seduction.—Loss of services is at common law the basis of the action for seduction, and a plaintiff is entitled to maintain such an action and recover for loss of services, and for incidental expenses incurred by him, resulting- from the mere act of sexual intercourse of the defendant with the daughter. The statute in Virginia (section 2896 of the Code of 1904), dispensing with the need of proof of actual loss of services has not ' changed that rule. But where sexual intercourse has taken place without seduction—that is, without the aid of flattery and artifice—no recovery can be had by the father beyond compensation, for the loss of services and reimbursement of incidental expenses.