Nakamura v. Los Angeles Gas & Electric Corp.

DESMOND, J.,

pro

tem.

This appeal is from an order of the trial court granting a motion for a new trial in a ease where a jury had awarded plaintiff damages in the sum of $2,500 for injuries received in an automobile accident. Appellant, conceding that the trial court is vested with broad discretion in ruling upon such a motion (2 Cal. Jur. 27), argues that in this ease there was such an abuse of discretion as to warrant reversal. While the motion was based on various grounds, the decision to grant a new trial rested solely upon error in law occurring at the trial.

The plaintiff, a Japanese woman, thirty-four years of age, testified that while boarding the rear end of a street-car on North Main Street in the city of Los Angeles she was struck by an automobile, driven through the safety zone where she stood, by defendant Raines, a driver employed by defendant corporation, sustaining injuries which incapacitated her for

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a long period of months and necessitated protracted treatment by a surgeon. It appeared that at the time of the accident plaintiff was employed as a barber earning considerably more than $100 per month, and that after she returned to work, approximately a year later, her earnings were practically fifty per cent less, she being unable to work as many days or for as long hours as previously. The following testimony was brought out while plaintiff’s counsel was examining her through an interpreter: “Q. Why were you working at this trade—Mr. Locke: Objected to as immaterial. The Court: Sustained. Mr. Wright: The idea was to show that she was supporting herself, that’s the idea. I don’t want to ask leading questions, but the jury wants to know whether she was supported by someone else, and if this was pastime or necessity, for her to work. Mr. Locke: Object to that as immaterial. As an offer of proof, I will object to the offer of proof as immaterial. It is immaterial wrhether she was supporting herself or not. The Court: Objection sustained. Mr. Wright: I offer to prove by this witness that she had to work to support herself, and had no other means of support except by her own earnings. Mr. Locke: I object to it as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial ; not tending to prove or disprove any issues in this case, and I object to the offer. The Court: Were you married at the time of this accident? The Witness: I was separated from my husband for a while. The Court: In view of the facts, I think that the question is proper and the ruling will be set aside. Objection overruled. Read the question. (Question read by the reporter.) A. If I don’t work, I won’t be able to eat. Q. Were you receiving money or compensation or support except from these earnings? Mr. Locke: The same objection. The Court: Overruled. A. No, sir; just what I earned.”