Smith v. Philip Morris Co.

In a trial without a jury plaintiffs, husband and wife, recovered judgment for $5,000 general damages and $550.10 special damages for injuries suffered by Mrs. Smith in an automobile accident. Philip Morris Company, Inc., Ltd., a corporation, and Clemens F. Soeller, respectively the owner and driver of a light panel truck which struck the car of plaintiffs, appeal.

The grounds of appeal are (1) insufficiency of the evidence, (2) the alleged miscarriage suffered by plaintiff wife was.not proximately caused by the accident, (3) negligence of the husband, imputable to the wife, was the sole cause, or at least a proximate cause, of the accident, and (4) the damages were excessive.

According to plaintiffs’ witnesses the Smith car, owned by Mrs. Smith and driven by her husband, was traveling north on Figueroa Street approaching 47th Street, in the lane next to the double lines in the center of the street of a six-lane highway. Carolyn Allen, Mrs. Smith’s daughter, was a passenger. The time was 7:45 a.m., traffic was heavy, there were five or six cars ahead of the Smith car, all traveling about 25 or 30 miles an hour. Mr. Smith observed the cars ahead of him slowing down and he slowed…