94 Vt. 227 | Vt. | 1920
This case has once before been here on exceptions. On the record then presented the defendant had been found liable under both counts of the declaration, one charging-negligence in failing to provide the plaintiff a safe working place, and the other, in employing an incompetent foreman to superintend the work. It was then held that the question of the defendant’s negligence under the first count and of the plaintiff’s freedom from contributory negligence were, as the evidence then stood, for the jury; but that the court erred in submitting the case on the second count, which required’ a reversal and a new trial. 92 Vt. 195, 102 Atl. 493. At the retrial’ the plaintiff waived the second count and claimed to recover only under the first. There was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant reserved exceptions.
The accident occurred May 21, 1915, and as a result the plaintiff suffered total loss of eyesight. There was evidence tending to show that his hearing was affected by the explosion; that his right arm was so burned as to impair its use down to
The seventh ground of the motion presents the question whether the verdict should have been set aside for want of evidence of the probable length of the plaintiff’s life as affecting the length of time that he would probably suffer from his injuries, the point being that the amount of plaintiff’s damages, in the absence of such evidence, was a matter of speculation and therefore the verdict should be set aside.
By the four remaining grounds of the motion an attempt is made to raise a constitutional question. It is claimed that to hold the defendant liable for more than $3,250 (the maximum amount of compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act) is to deprive the defendant of its property without due process and to deny it the equal protection of the law, in violation of Article XIV of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States; and that a failure to set aside the verdict on the several grounds specified in the motion is in violation of the same article. The defendant contents itself with disposing of these questions by merely stating the claim that its constitutional rights “are infringed and violated in the respects set forth if the verdict and judgment of $11,000' are allowed to stand, or if no consideration whatever is given to No. 164 of the Laws. of 1915 (the Workmen’s-Compensation Act), or its claims in the respects indicated in its motion are not sustained.” It is not clear th.at anything more is claimed than that the plaintiff’s damages are fixed by-the Workmen’s Compensation Act. At least, the only point made with sufficient definiteness to require attention relates to that act, and that it has no application here already sufficiently appears. We fail to find that the court erred in refusing to sustain the defendant’s motion to set aside the verdict.
Judgment affirmed.