Lyle v. Seller

TYLER, P. J.

Action for damages in the sum of $1,008.75, claimed to have been suffered by the plaintiff as the result of an automobile collision brought about through the negligence of defendant Mrs. A. Seller. The amount sued for is composed of the following items: $234.05,

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cost of making repairs to plaintiff’s automobile; $487 for deprivation of its use while undergoing such repairs, and the sum of $80 paid as wages by plaintiff to a chauffeur regularly employed by her to drive her said car.

At the trial it was shown in evidence that plaintiff is a regularly licensed and practicing physician and surgeon engaged in the practice of her profession in ‘San Francisco, in the carrying on of which she requires the constant use of an automobile. ' It was admitted by said defendant, that the collision occurred solely through her negligence, and that the sum of $234.05 was actually paid for repairs necessitated by the collision, and that she is liable for said amount, her objections being directed to other items of damage included in the judgment against her. In this behalf it appeared from the evidence'that the repairs to plaintiff’s car included the installation of a new radiator, that part of her automobile having been rendered entirely useless by the collision. It also appears that certain necessary parts for the repair of the car had to be procured from the east, and this entailed considerable delay. After arranging for the repair of the automobile plaintiff hired a taxicab for her professional use during a period of three weeks, the cost of which is included in the amount claimed for deprivation of the use of her car. She also during the whole time that it was undergoing repairs retained in her service her regularly employed chauffeur, to whom she paid wages at the rate of $25 a week. In her claim for damages she has included such wages for a period of about three weeks, although, as she testified, she was deprived of the use of her car for upwards of three months.

Upon this evidence the court found that the cost of repairing the automobile was $234.05; that plaintiff was deprived of the use thereof for the period of twenty-three days, to her damage in the sum of $140, and that she was further damaged in the sum of $82.10 paid as wages to her chauffeur during such period of deprivation. Judgment was accordingly entered for the sum of $456.15, the total of the foregoing amounts.