Reznick

This is an action for personal injuries received when plaintiff’s car, standing at an intersection in obedience to a traffic light, was struck in the rear by defendant’s car driven by defendant’s agent. Plaintiff claims to have suffered a whiplash injury in the accident, which occurred on December 9, 1959, and that the whiplash had developed at the time of trial (April 26, 1962) into a herniated disc. Plaintiff’s special damages aggregated $2,674.50; included therein is an item of $159.60 for repairs to plaintiff’s Borgward sedan and $36 paid to Southern California Permanente Group, of which plaintiff was a member, for three preliminary examinations of plaintiff by its doctors (total $195.60). The jury rendered a verdict in plaintiff’s favor for $200, and counsel in their briefs agree that this amount represents the total of the last mentioned items.

Plaintiff appealed and urges three main points, (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict, in that it affirmatively shows without contradiction that plaintiff suffered physical injury in the accident which is not and could not be included within the $200, (2) that the court erred in refusing an instruction…