Goode

The plaintiff, a professional dancer, brought an action against defendant Wills, a dancing teacher, for damages sustained by her while taking a dancing lesson from defendant. The cause was tried by the court sitting without a jury and resulted in a judgment against defendant in the sum of $6,000 and costs. Defendant appeals from the judgment on the ground that the amount thereof is excessive, claiming that the plaintiff assumed the risk of a hazardous act, that defendant was not negligent and that plaintiff was negligent, and was guilty of contributory negligence.

The evidence shows that the plaintiff is a native of England and spent several years educating herself as a professional stage dancer and for some time past has teamed with her sister in Europe. Something like a year before she met with the accident she was dancing in Paris and the south of France at the watering resorts earning from three to four hundred dollars net per week. She came to this country on a visit to her relatives and intended returning to Europe, but has been delayed on account of the accident. While here she went to Mr. Wills, defendant and appellant, for lessons in acrobatic and tap dancing, as she had…