Ringis v. Otting

WOOD (Parker), J. In this action for damages for personal injuries resulting from the alleged negligence of defendant in firing a shotgun while plaintiff and defendant were quail hunting, plaintiff obtained judgment, in a trial without a jury, for $19,000 general damages for the loss of an eye and for minor injuries to other parts of his body, and $948.40 special damages. Defendant appeals from the judgment and asserts that (1) the amount of general damages was excessive; (2) the findings as to general damages were unsupported by the evidence; and (3) the court erred in restricting the cross-examination of plaintiff.

The evidence, in the view most favorable to plaintiff, shows: Plaintiff and defendant had been friends about three and one-half years, and had gone hunting together about fifteen times. On November 30, 1941, they went quail hunting on a ranch of defendant’s friend near Lancaster. The hunting place in the vicinity of the accident was covered with sagebrush ranging from knee high to waist high, and the ground was generally flat except for a dry wash or “little depression,” which varied in width from 50 to 300 feet, had gradually sloping sides from the level of the surrounding land to a depth of about two feet, and extended northerly across the ranch. Before they started to hunt, plaintiff and defendant agreed that, while hunting, they would stay in sight of each other, would walk 125 to 175 feet apart in the same direction [90]and would keep approximately “parallel” or equally advanced except as the distance would vary when they deviated to go around sagebrush or to pick up quail they had shot. It was a clear day, and plaintiff was wearing a red plaid shirt, green trousers and a “dirty” white hat. They proceeded to hunt in a northerly direction along the wash. When they arrived at a point where defendant was on the east side of the wash, in brush about four feet high, and plaintiff was in the center of the wash, about 125 feet to the west and left of defendant, in brush about “waist high,” a quail suddenly flew out of the brush about fifteen feet to the rear of, and “between,” plaintiff and defendant, and flew toward defendant. Defendant turned to his left, fired his 16-gauge shotgun, and shot the quail which was “about three feet above the brush, possibly waist high.” The gun “was pointed straight at” plaintiff. A bird-shot from the charge struck plaintiff in the left eye. Other shots struck plaintiff—one on the head, one on the left side, one on the right wrist, and one on the knee. The shots, other than the one that struck in the eye, caused slight injury. Plaintiff “dropped” to the ground. Defendant, and defendant’s wife and plaintiff’s wife (who had accompanied them on the trip and were following behind them), went to plaintiff’s assistance. A “bloody fluid” was coming from plaintiff’s eye, and they went immediately to Lancaster where he received medical treatment. Then they went to Pasadena, where he received further medical attention, then to Alhambra where X-rays were taken of plaintiff’s eye, and then to a hospital in Long Beach where plaintiff remained forty-six days and his eye was removed.