120 Iowa 464 | Iowa | 1903
In presenting the issues to the jury the trial court did not instruct with reference to a defense interposed in the answer that defendant, at the time of the alleged sales to plaintiff’s husband, was carrying on the business of selling liquor under the provisions of the mulct law, and the failure to present this defense to the jury is assigned as error. The civil liability provisions of the intoxicating liquor law were first enacted in 1862 as chapter 47, page 50, of the Acts of the Ninth General Assembly, and remained unchanged until the adoption of the present Code in 3897, being section 1557 of the Code of 1873. The commissioners who reported the present Code to the legislature made no modification in the section, save by way of the elimination of tautology, except to insert the provision as to giving, so that, as the section was reported, one who should give liquor to another, as well as one who should sell, would be liable in civil damages for injuries resulting therefrom. In adopting the Code, however, the legislature inserted the words “contrary to the provisions of this chapter,” in the section as reported by the Code Commission, and as now found in section 2418 of the present Code. It is to be borne in mind that the so-called “mulct law,” now embodied in sections 2432-2455 of the Code, was first enacted in 1894, as chapter 62, page 63, of the Acts of the Twenty Fifth General Assembly. In the case of Carrier v. Bernstein, 104 Iowa, 572, it was held that compliance with the mulct law on the part
Complaint is made of an instruction in which the jury Avere told that if defendant caused or contributed to the habitual intoxication of plaintiff’s husband, and that by
As to the claim that the instruction is broader than the allegations of the petition, in that it allows recovery by plaintiff for damages caused by habitual intoxication 4 habitual “negations?1 instruction, which defendant contributed, while the petition alleges only that defendant caused iiakifctial intoxication, it is sufficient to say that it is without merit. One who contributes to an injury in such a way as to render himself liable therefor to that extent causes the injury complained of. That the liquor seller, who by sales of liquor contributes to such an injury, is liable therefor to the extent to which his sales caused the injuries, is well settled. Woolheather v. Risley, 38 Iowa, 486; Ennis v. Shiley., 47 Iowa, 552; Welch v. Jugenheimer, 56 Iowa, 11.
Complaint is made of an' instruction as to the measure of damages, and it is urged that plaintiff was not entitled to recover if, prior to the sale of liquor to her
Another assignment of error is based on an instruction allowing the jury to take into consideration, in measuring plaintiff’s damages, injury to plaintiff’s health resulting from threats of great bodily injury made to her, or in her
• We need not discuss at length other assignments, such as that the verdict was without support in the evidenc'e, that the damages allowed were excessive, and that the verdict was the result of passion and prejudice. An examination of the recórd does not sustain these assignments. As to an assignment of alleged error in admitting testimony as to the extent of the husband’s drinking at a time
Objections to questions propounded to witnesses for plaintiff as to the general condition of plaintiff’s husband with reference to intoxication during the period covered
We have considered all the material assignments of error, and, finding them to be without merit, the judgment of the trial court is aeeirmed.