Roedder v. Lindsley

GIBSON, C. J.

The sole question involved on this appeal is whether an award by a jury of $9,756.56 general damages for injuries to plaintiff, caused by a collision between two trucks, is excessive.

At the time of the accident plaintiff was 41 years old and was engaged in hauling sand and gravel for construction companies, using his own dump truck. When the collision occurred his dump truck turned over and caught fire but he succeeded in extricating himself from the wreckage. Immediately following the accident plaintiff appeared to be dazed and suffering from shock, but he refused to go to a hospital saying he did not think he was hurt. His clothing was torn and people at the scene of the accident noticed a bruise or abrasion on his back. When he arrived at his home, plaintiff complained of a prickly sensation in his back, a headache and a numb feeling in his arm and leg. The following day he consulted his family physician who testified that plaintiff was suffering from a spasm of the back muscles and “lumbo-saeral sprains.” During the next few weeks, the doctor administered massage, heat and light treatments to plaintiff’s back.

About two months after the accident, plaintiff resumed his work of hauling sand and gravel, but he continued to

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suffer from headaches, pains in his back and leg, and numbness in his arm, and was able to work only a few hours a day. Two days after he returned to work he consulted another physician who took X-ray pictures which disclosed that the bony structure of plaintiff’s back was abnormally small, “predisposing [him] to a strain injury above that of the average person. ’ ’ He had never experienced any difficulty or suffered pain with his back before the injury. The doctor testified that plaintiff was suffering from a sprain and strain of the muscles and the bony structure of his back, and prescribed complete immobilization of plaintiff’s back for a period of four to six months by the use of a cast to quiet “the active inflammatory process,” after which further treatment was to be administered to restore the normal movement lost during the period of immobilization. The doctor stated that there were evidences of contusions and bruises on plaintiff’s back and other parts of his body, and gave as his opinion that the back injury was due to trauma, and that plaintiff would continue to suffer pain for an indefinite time with or without the suggested treatment.