Horn v. Yellow Cab Co.

KNIGHT, J.

A verdict of $7,500 damages was awarded respondent on account of personal injuries sustained by her

[679]

as a result of the alleged negligence of appellant’s employee, and from the judgment entered on said verdict this appeal has been taken.

The action was tried with two companion cases, and the appeals were consolidated, but on stipulation the appeals in the other two actions have been dismissed. The sole ground urged for reversal of the judgment in the present case is that the amount of damages awarded is excessive.

The three actions grew out of a collision occurring on the morning of July 5, 1924, at the corner of Post and Laguna Streets, San Francisco, between a taxicab operated by the appellant company in which the three plaintiffs were riding as passengers for hire, and an automobile. The taxi was being driven at a speed approximating thirty miles an hour while traversing the intersection of the streets mentioned, and struck the rear end of an automobile running at right angles with the taxi. Following the impact the taxi traveled a distance of ninety feet, ran up on the sidewalk and crashed into a building on the wrong side of the street, overturning the taxi, injuring the occupants thereof and damaging the building. At the trial appellant admitted liability for the accident and the issue before the jury was therefore confined to the question of the extent of the injuries suffered by the occupants of the taxi and the damages proximately resulting therefrom. It is conceded on this appeal that respondent sustained special damages in the sum of $877.65 on account of doctor’s bills, hospitalization, and loss of employment, which leaves an assessment of $6,622.35 as compensation for the disability and the attendant pain, suffering, and inconvenience.

It appears from the testimony that besides sustaining a severe nervous shock respondent was thrown violently to the floor of the taxi, injuring her hack; also that her head struck against some object driving her teeth through her lip. The injury to her back instantly caused total disability, which was accompanied by intense pain. She was removed first to the emergency hospital and then to the home of a friend. The physician who was called diagnosed the injury to her back as a slip of the sacroiliac joint, but on account of the agonizing pains accompanying the injury was unable to treat the same fully at the home, and in a couple