Murphy v. Department of Water & Power

DORAN, J. Defendants appeal from a judgment based upon a verdict of the jury in favor of plaintiff, respondent herein, in an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained in a collision between two automobiles.

The record reveals that on December 5, 1936, an automobile driven by Avery Parrish, an employee of the Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles, acting within the scope of his employment, collided with an automobile driven by one Sherwood E. Meredith, in which automobile plaintiff Howard C. Murphy was a guest.

At the trial defendants stipulated to liability, leaving as the sole issue to be determined by the jury the extent of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $20,000. This appeal is from the judgment entered thereon after defendants’ motion for a new trial was denied.

At the time of the accident plaintiff was 23 years of age; he had been working as a jig builder at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California. The immediate results of the accident were a fracture of the skull over the left eye, generalized contusion of the brain, laceration of the left frontal region and behind the right ear, bruises over the face and extremities, swelling and bruises on the left eye and the loss of the two upper center incisor teeth.

During the trial evidence was introduced which tended to show that prior to the áccident plaintiff had possessed a good mind and retentive memoiy, good manners, a pleasing personality, was energetic and alert, walked with a military posture and gait, spoke fluently and enunciated clearly, and was able to carry on a lengthy conversation without the lapse of thought; that since the accident plaintiff is suffering from impairment of his mental faculties and loss of memory, the loss [111]of at least two-thirds of the sight of his left eye, his qualities and powers of speech have deteriorated, his gait is slovenly, social behavior uncouth, and that he has undergone a change of personality.

One of the grounds contained in defendants’ motion for a new trial was as follows: "Irregularity in the proceedings in the trial by reason of misconduct on the part of plaintiff and his attorneys, and witnesses for the plaintiff, by which the defendants were prevented from having a fair trial in said action. ’ ’

The charge of misconduct was based upon the allegations contained in affidavits filed by three investigators of the Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles, in which it was alleged, in effect, that during the progress of the trial plaintiff was continually in the care of and accompanied by one Ben Loveless, a friend and a witness for the plaintiff, and that at the time of the court recesses and while the jury panel was passing from the court room and corridor, said Ben Loveless would bring plaintiff into the court room, and that when court convened again said Ben Loveless would take plaintiff by the arm and lead him into the corridor, in a manner indicating that plaintiff was childish or incompetent and that he required someone to care for him.