The Sweet Milk Co., a Texas Corporation v. John Stanfield and Mary Stanfield, His Wife

Appellees, husband and wife, sought and obtained a judgment for damages alleged to have resulted from certain personal injuries sustained by the wife. Jurisdiction of the District Court rested upon a diversity of citizenship. The injuries were alleged to have been sustained in a collision between an automobile occupied by appellees and a truck owned by appellant and operated in its behalf. The collision occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 22, 1962. On February 21,1962, the preceding day, the injured appellee had been involved in another collision between vehicles, and she pressed a claim for damages for injuries sustained in that accident. That claim was adjusted by the payment of money to appellee wife at some time prior to the trial of the present case in the court below.

The trial was to a jury, and there was evidence pertaining to the extent of the injuries suffered in each accident.

Included in the jury instructions given by the trial judge was the following:

The appellant contends that such quoted instruction was prejudicially erroneous, and we are compelled to agree. The instruction follows others which properly presented the law relating to a tortfeasor’s…