45 Fla. 278 | Fla. | 1903
This cause was originally commenced in the Circuit Court of Duval county on the 23rd day of April, 1891, was formerly tried resulting in a former verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff below, which upon review on appeal was reversed by this court, because of improper charges, at its January term, 1899, 41 Fla. 1, 25 South. Rep. 338. Since its former reversal by this court the case was again tried resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff below on May 26, 1899, for the sum of $9,000, and the defendant below again brings the case here for review by writ of error.
Numerous errors' are assigned upon rulings of the court below involving the pleadings, admissions and rejections of evidence and instructions given and refused. A discussion of all these in detail would be profitless, and we, therefore, dispose of them by saying that we have given to «ich of them due consideration and find no reversable p”ror in any of them that have not been waived or abandoned here.
The defendant below, plaintiff in error here, moved for new trial upon twenty-eight different grounds, among
The two above quoted grounds of the motion for new trial are meritorious. The only definite proof in the case bearing upon the question of damages, viewed from the standpoint most favorable to the plaintiff below, is in substance as follows: That the deceased was a man of about eighty years of age, but in vigorous health, a minister of the gospel by profession; that he had not accumulated any property and had none at the time of his death; that at the time of his death he filled the pastorate, of three or four small churches at a salary subscribed of $600 per year; that he and his wife, whom he married within a year previous to his death, lived very happily and affectionately together, and lived well. His wife owning some property of her own. The uncontradicted evidence in the case, supported by the recognized mortuary tables, is that the expectancy of life of a man in vigorous health at the age of eighty years does not exceed four and one-half years. This practically is the substance of all the evidence, viewed most favorably for the plaintiff out of which the jury arrived at the amount of their verdict. There is nothing in the evidence that would have justified punitive or vindictive damages. Admitting that the capacity for pecuniary earnings of the deceased amounted to $600 per year, and the proofs do not show it to have been more, and admitting' that he contributed one-half of this or $300 to his wife, which is fully as much as she could have expected, and multiplying this by four and a half, the number of years of his expectancy of life.