102 N.Y.S. 463 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1907
• The "plaintiff appeals from an order for .a bill of particulars. The action- is for an assault by the defendant’s servants upon the plaintiff
The bill requires the plaintiff to namethe place and exact time of day that the accident (sic) happened and also direction car was going.” There is nothing unreasonable in these requirements. The information not only serves to locate and specify the occurrence,! but also the car and consequently those in charge of it, as it is com- j mon knowledge that the defendant keeps a record of its cars, their . trips and the particular servants in charge of each of them. (See Kerch v. Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg R. R. Co., 14 N. Y. St. Repr. 446.) The bill also requires the number of the car, line, and badge number of the motorman and conductor. This is but to specify the car among the many worked by the defendant and to identify the servants out of the many employed by it. In Shepard v. Wood (116 App. Div. 861), decided in this court January 25,' 1907, Gaynor, J., for the court, says in discrimination: “ This is not like the case of a street car accident, where the company may require the hour of the day in order to identify the car out of many cars.” If the plaintiff knew the names of the servants he could be required to give them. (See Causullo v. Lenox Construction Co., 106 App. Div. 575, 576.) Of course it is neither essential to complaint or recovery that the plaintiff .should give the numbers of the servants or their names, but that is not the question. If he knew the numbers there is no good reason why he should-not furnish -the information, and there are many reasons which I have indicated why he should do so. I think that the plaintiff should not be required to give the “ exact statement of injuries claimed to have been sustained ”
The order must be modified as iñdicated, and as modified affirmed without costs to either party.
Hirsohberg, P. J., Gaynor, Rich and Miller, JJ., concurred.
Order modified in accordance with opinion of Jenks, J., and as modified affirmed, without costs.