198 Mass. 370 | Mass. | 1908
In this Commonwealth it is settled that, in an action by a married woman to recover damages for a personal injury, an impairment of her capacity to perform labor may be considered as an element of the damages. Jordan v. Middlesex Railroad, 138 Mass. 425. Harmon v. Old Colony Railroad, 165 Mass. 100. Nolin v. Pearson, 191 Mass. 283. The reasoning upon which the doctrine is based shows that the principle is applicable whether she ever has worked or not. Harmon v. Old Colony Railroad, ubi supra, pp. 104, 105.
It is argued however by the defendant that, even if this be so, yet the declaration in this case is not broad enough to cover such an element of damages. The declaration states that by reason of the accident “the plaintiff was thrown to the ground and caused to suffer great and severe bodily injury and anguish of mind.” It is to be noted that there is no claim in this case that the plaintiff was engaged in any special calling or occupation. The only claim is for such damage as is the natural and necessary result upon one’s capacity for labor of such a bodily injury as she received. Whatever may be the practice elsewhere, we think that in this Commonwealth it has been the practice to allow the jury under an allegation like this to take into consideration as an element of damages, not only the actual pain resulting from a physical injury, but also the impairment, if any, which is the manifest and necessary result to an ordinary person of such an injury. In Baldwin v. Western Railroad, 4 Gray, 333, evidence that the plaintiff was educated and a school teacher was held to have been wrongly admitted upon the question of
Exceptions overruled.
