1 Misc. 408 | City of New York Municipal Court | 1892
This action was brought by a husband to recover damages sustained by him by reason of the personal injuries to his wife through the negligence of the defendant, and which was commmenced in January, 1890, upon a cause of action arising in August, 1889, hence this case is not gov
The complaint, after setting forth allegations as to the injury of the wife and the cause thereof, alleges “ That by reason of the premises, plaintiff (the husband) suffered great damage and was put to great expense by reason of the loss of the services of his said wife, who managed and conducted plaintiff’s business of keeping a restaurant, and in procuring necessary medical attendance and medicines and otherwise to-plaintiff’s damage five hundred dollars.” The husband under the complaint could certainly recover for the loss of his wife’s domestic services and the expenses necessarily incurred by reason of the injuries to her (to this extent the cause of action would survive to his administrator), and the allegations of the complaint may be broad enough to permit of his recovering for the loss of his wife’s society and the comforts of that society. At the trial, the husband was permitted, over the objection and exception of the defendant, to prove the truth of this allegation as regards the services of the wife rendered in the management and conducting of his business of keeping a restaurant, and that he had employed a man to do this work, in the restaurant, which his wife had performed before the accident, and had paid him therefor ten dollars per week for six weeks and boarded him at a cost of four dollars per week.
A husband cannot recover general damages occasioned by an injury to his wife, for those damages belong to the wife, the person injured, and for such she can bring an action. The appellant’s brief states that this wife had already brought
On the trial of this action, the defendant duly excepted to that portion of the charge to the jury which said “ so it seems to me that you are confined, in case you believe the plaintiff is entitled to a verdict, to compensating him for the loss of his wife’s services, whatever you may believe those services to be worth, together with the amount of money he paid to this hired man.” This hired man was the one to whom plaintiff testified he had paid ten dollars per week for six weeks ($60) to perform in his wife’s stead the services in the restaurant which she had been prevented from rendering on account of her injuries. From the verdict under this charge, it would
McGown, P. J., and McCarthy, J., concur.
Judgment and order reversed, with costs.