Murphy v. Cordle

REES, Chief Justice. Glen Edward Cordle, a child eight years of age, was injured when he fell from a moving taxicab owned by Curtis Murphy and Ida Murphy, doing business as Buick Taxicab Company, and driven by their employee James Hunt. The accident happened near the intersection of 13th Street and Blackburn Avenue in Ashland, Kentucky, on January 21, 1945. The action was brought against the owners of the taxicab in the name of Glen Edward Cordle by his mother, Ruby Cordle, as his next friend. On the trial of the case the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $3,500, and the defendants seeks a reversal of the judgment on the following grounds: (1) The damages are excessive; (2) the verdict was obtained by lot; (3) the instructions were erroneous; and (4) the plaintiff's counsel was guilty of misconduct in his argument to the jury. These grounds will be discussed in reverse order. Mrs. Cordle entered the taxicab with her son at the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway passenger station and instructed the driver to take them to their home near Cannonsburg, about ten miles from Ashland. They entered the taxicab on the left side. Mrs. Cordle testified that she sat on the left side and her son, who was ill, sat leaning against her. As the taxicab proceeded along 13th Street the door on the right side came open. The driver applied the brakes suddenly, and the boy was thrown through the open door onto the pavement. James Hunt, the driver, testified that he heard an exclamation by Mrs. Cordle, looked back, and saw the boy opening the door on the right side of the taxicab. He applied the brakes, but the boy fell through the open door before the taxicab came to a stop. The boy was taken to a hospital in Ashland, where he remained six days. He received a cut on his forehead above his left eye, a cut on his nose, and a cut on the back of his head which required seven stitches to close. There were no fractures, and the only permanent results are scars on his forehead and nose. There was some medical testimony to the effect that these scars can be easily removed by plastic surgery, but no surgeon experienced in this type of surgery was introduced and the physicians who testified on the subject admitted they were not qualified to express an opinion as to the nature or cost of the operation.