24 Ind. App. 374 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1900
Counsel for appellee, in their brief, aptly say that the “question presented in this case is whether or not appellee is entitled to recover damages for personal injuries caused by fright, and resulting in nervous prostration and a permanent impairment of health.” The record, by the assignment of errors, presents but two questions: (1) The sufficiency of the amended complaint, and (2) the overruling of the motion for a new trial.
If the amended complaint, upon its conceded theory, does not state a cause of action, questions arising under the motion for a new trial need not be noticed. The amended complaint is somewhat lengthy, but it will be necessary to set it out quite fully, to the end that its general scope and theory may more clearly appear. As preliminary to the averments stating facts upon which appellee bases her right of action, it is averred that appellant is a common carrier; that the appellee had been seriously ill, and was just recovering; that she, in company with her husband and two children, had purchased tickets which entitled them to be earned over appellant’s road from Muncie, Indiana, to Indianapolis, Indiana, and then continues as follows: “That while plaintiff and her said companions were waiting at said station, * * * said train arrived at said station, and was stopped at the platform thereof for the purpose of discharging and receiving passengers; that the plaintiff and her said husband and children attempted to get upon and enter one of defendant’s passenger coaches, then and there a part of defendant’s said train, in which coach plaintiff and her said companions were then and there entitled to be carried by reason of the tickets held by each of them, respectively; that plaintiff, assisted by her said husband, got
Under the well established rule in this State, a complaint must be, construed upon the theory which is most apparent and clearly outlined by the facts stated therein. As only one theory can be contained in a single paragraph, the court must construe the pleading most strongly against the pleader, and determine the theory from its prominent and leading allegations. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Dugan, 18 Ind. App. 435; Dull v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., 21 Ind. App. 571; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Sullivan, 141 Ind. 83, 27 L. R. A. 840; Batman v. Snoddy, 132 Ind. 480.
The complaint can not have the double theory of asking damages on account of delay and inconvenience caused by appellee’s failure to get passage upon the train she attempted to enter, and having to wait for another train which went a few hours later, and also to recover damages for personal injuries caused by fright, resulting in nervous prostration and permanent impairment of health. These two theories are inconsistent, and rest upon entirely different reasons. It is not only apparent from the prominent and leading allegations of the complaint that the pleader bottomed it upon the latter theory, but counsel for appellee concede in their brief that that is the theory, and-they' ground their entire argument thereon. So we have this anomaloits questmiT presented by the complaint: Will an action lie for damages for fright, resulting in nervous prostration and permanent impairment of health, when such fright does not arise from impending or apparent danger to the party demanding damages, but from impending, apparent and possible danger or peril to another? Of course, this implies negligence on the part of the party causing the
Appellant’s learned counsel urge and argue with much force and strong reason that the fright to appellee was not the proximate result of any negligence on the part of appellant, anc^, even if it were, there could be no recovery, because the nervous prostration and permanent impairment of health, alleged to have resulted from the fright, was not the proximate result of any negligence on the part of appellant, and because public policy forbids a recovery in such case* The complaint does not pretend to base appellee’s right to recover upon any negligence toward her. She was not on the car, nor upon the steps of the car, but upon the station platform, waiting to enter the car, when the door was opened. • WhileTn that position, before any part of her person came in contact with the car, the train started. She was not frightened because the train started before she got on, but because her daughter was in “imminent danger of being drawn under the wheels of said moving train, and mangled and killed before her eyes; that plaintiff saw the danger of her said daughter, * * * and was greatly terrified and frightened,” etc. It is nowhere averred that the daughter was on the car, or on the steps thereof, and as to 'how she was “dragged upon the platform,” etc., is left to mere conjecture. Whether she had hold of the hand-railing, or some other part of the car, is not shown by the complaint, but it is evident she could not be “dragged along the platform” unless some part of her person or clothing came in contact with the ear.
The general rule of law is that where a party relies upon negligence as a groimd for the recovery of damages, such negligence must be the proximate cause of such damages, and there must not be any intervening independent human
The complaint fails to show any negligence on the part of the appellant toward the appellee that caused her injury or fright. The appellee was not frightened because appellant’s servants did not hold the train until she nould enter the car, but because of the train starting before any of the party had entered. The proposition is not disputed that appellant did not owe the appellee any duty to hold the train till her daughter got on. Such duty, if it owed it to any one, was to the daughter herself. It j^ejdainly. owed appellee no duty to keep her from becoming frightened at what her daughter did. If the latter placed herself in peril, appellant was not responsible therefor, unless such peril was brought about by the negligence of the appellant, or by some breach of duty which it owed to the daughter; and, (2)there was such negligence or breach of duty, the right of action would be in the daughter, and not in the appellee. The proposition now under consideration is tersely and plainly stated in Bank of Rome v. Matt, 17 Wend. 554, as follows: “The law can not, in such cases, look beyond the proximate mischief resulting to a vested right, and do more than redress the mischief, at the suit of the person immediately wronged.” The case from which this quotation is taken is cited with approval in State v. Harris, 89 Ind. 363, 46 Am. Rep. 169, where other authorities are collected and discussed, and to which we refer without quoting.
' In Hoosier Stone Co. v. Louisville, etc., R. Co., 131 Ind. 575, on p. 580, the court said: “As the duty violated was one owing directly to the appellant, there was an actionable wrong, and the right of action was in the party to whom the duty was owing.”
In Ewing v. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co., 147 Pa. St. 40, 23 Atl. 340, 14 L. R. A. 666, it is skid; “If mere fright, unaccompanied with bodily injury, is a cause of ‘ action, the scope of what are known as accident cases will be greatly enlarged; for, in every case of a collision on a railroad, the passengers, although they may have sustained no bodily harm, will have a cause of action against the company for the fright to which they have been subjected. This is a step beyond any decision of any legal tribunal of which we have knowledge. * * * But it owed her no duty to protect her from fright, nor had it any reason to anticipate that the result of a collision on its road would so operate on the mind of a person who witnessed it, but who sustained no bodily injury thereby, as to produce such nervous excitement and distress as to result in permanent injury; and, if the injury was one not likely to result from the collision, and one which the company could not have reasonably foreseen, then, the accident was not the proximate cause. The rule on this subject is as follows: ‘In determining what is proximate cause, the true rule is that the injury must he the natural and probable consequence of the negligence, such a
In Haile’s Curator v. Texas, etc., R. Co., 60 Ped. 557, 9 C. C. A. 134, 23 L. R. A. 774, it was held that where a passenger was made insane by the negligence of the railroad company, she could not recover therefor. The opinion is a strong one, and we quote from it as follows: “It is well settled that the damages sustained by a wrongful act must be the natural result of the act — such a consequence as, in the ordinary course of things, would flow from it. As expressed by some of the authorities, ‘proximate damages are those that are the ordinary and natural results of the negligence, such as are usual, and might therefore have been expected.’ ‘Remote damages are such as are the result of an accidental or unusual combination of circumstances, which would not be reasonably anticipated, and over which the negligent party had no control.’ Ewing v. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co., 147 Pa. St. 40, 23 Atl. 340, 14 L. R. A. 666; Commissioners v. Coultas, L. R. 13 App. Cas. 222; Cooley on Torts, 69; 2 Thomp. on Neg. 1083. * * * While the defendant, as a common carrier, had reason to anticipate that an accident would cause physical injury, and would produce fright and excitement, it had no l'eason to anticipate that the latter would result in permanent injury, as a disease of the mind, or any other disease that might be caused by excitement, exposure, and hardship sometimes incident to travel. If the disease was not likely to result from the accident, and was not one which the defendant could have reasonably foreseen, in the light of the attending circumstances, then the accident was not the proximate cause. The defendant had no reason to anticipate that the result of an accident on its road would so operate on Haile’s mind as to
In the case of Washington, etc., R. Co. v. Dashiell (D. C. App.)., 24 Wash. Law 40, it was held that while mental pain' and suffering attendant upon a physical injury as a natural consequence might be considered as an element of damages in awarding compensation for the injury, yet a nervous shock and its consequences could not furnish any independent ground for awarding damages. In the decision of that case, we find this language: “The jury were instructed that, in addition to damages for pain and suffering [growing out of the bodily injury], they could award damages for any impairment of the plaintiff’s nervous system, if such nervous impairment was produced as a direct result of the nervous shock received by her on the occasion of the collision. Thus making the nervous shock and the consequences thereof a separate and independent ground for awarding damages. This is certainly a most indefinite element to be considered by the jury, and one that is most difficult, if not quite impossible, to regulate by any reasonable standard for assessing damages. * * * To attempt to furnish a legal remedy in such case would open the door to the widest speculation. Without for a moment intimating that simulation existed in this case, yet the nature of such claim would render it easy of simulation; and if not simulated, the temptation would be strong to 'exaggeration, and the assigning of one cause for another in the production of the morbid state of the nervous sensibilities; and all this, though it might be without real foundation, would be most difficult to disprove by the party sought to be charged. Such claims for compensation are subject to all the objections to remote and speculative damages.”
The recent case of Kalen v. Terre Haute, etc., R. Co.,
In the case of Braun v. Craven, 175 Ill. 401, 51 N. E. 657, 42 L. R. A. 199, it was held that damages could not be recovered for a severe nervous shock resulting in St. Vitus’ dance, and the decision was based upon two grounds: (1) That such damages are too remote, and (2) that it was agaizzst public policy.
In the case of Gulf, etc., R. Co. v. Trott, 86 Tex. 412, 25 S. W. 419, the following qzzestion was certified -to the supreme court: “Can actual damages be recovered for
In Spohn v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 116 Mo. 617, 22 S. W. 690, it was held that there could be no recovery for mental anguish or fright without bodily injury.
In Spade v. Lynn, etc., R. Co., 168 Mass. 285, 47 N. E. 88, 38 L. R. A. 513, it was said: “We remain satisfied with the rule that there can be no recovery for fright, terror, alarm, anxiety, or distress of mind, ;if these are unaccompanied by some physical injury; and if this rule is to stand, we think it should also be held that there can be no recovery for such physical injuries as may be caused solely by such mental disturbance, where there is no injury to the person from without.”
It is remarkable that no precedent has been cited by appellee’s learned counsel, and we confess our inability to find any, of an action similar to the present having been successfully maintained; and, in the face of the authorities, we are not willing to establish such a precedent by an affirmance of the judgment. We mean by thisjto^ay that wejhave not been cited to any case, nor have ,we been able, after the most" diligent research, to find anv case holding that fright to one person occasioned by imminent danger and peril to another, can be made_the basis of an action' for damages by the former.
In the case of Atchison, etc., R. Co. v. McGinnis, 46 Kan. 109, 26 Pac. 453, the. court said: “A person who is pláced in peril by the negligence of another, but' who escapes without injury, may not recover damages simply because he had been placed in a perilous position. Nor is mere fright the subject of damages. Eright must be accompanied by some actual injury caused thereby, and traceable directly thereto, to be the subject of damages. Mere fright, unaccompanied by any injury resulting therefrom, can not be the subject of damages.” Citing Commissioners v. Coultas, L. R. 13 App. Cas. 222.
The judgment is reversed, and the court below is directed to sustain appellant’s demurrer to the amended complaint.