217 N.W. 369 | Minn. | 1928
The assignment of error principally argued is that plaintiff's counsel was allowed, over objection and as a part of the case for plaintiffs, to go into the insurance supposedly carried by defendants. Ownership of the car at the time of the accident was denied by John Zacher. Against that denial, evidence that he was carrying insurance on the car at the time of the accident would have been relevant. It would be difficult therefore to hold that there was error in developing the fact that John Zacher was carrying insurance. If he was not, it seems that the defense might have forestalled the effort altogether by disclosing to counsel for plaintiff at the outset, entirely aside from the evidence in the case, what the fact was. If there had been such a disclosure that John Zacher was not insured, and then, notwithstanding, the matter of insurance had been gone into for plaintiff, a different problem would have been presented. But we are not disposed to follow the argument to decision. *367
There was a dismissal as to John Zacher, and his codefendant, Joseph, admitted liability. The only issue was as to the amount of damage. Although the verdicts were excessive and the learned trial judge so considered them, the ends of justice have been fully met by the reductions ordered and consented to. The injuries are so serious and the resulting outlay by the father so substantial that, if there were another trial, the recovery in each case could not reasonably and in justice be less than the amount at which it now stands. The young man was severely injured, receiving among other things a fracture of the skull. Compare Hillstrom v. Mannheimer Brothers,
Judgments affirmed. *368