Darmour Productions Corp. v. Herbert M. Baruch Corp.

Plaintiff’s amended complaint alleges that on and prior to August 12, 1930, it was engaged in the production of a certain moving picture and had in its employment and under contract a large number of persons as.actors therein, among whom was one Ann Christy; that up to the time mentioned said actress had taken leading parts in said picture and appeared in various scenes and portions thereof already photographed and completed; that plaintiff • had expended large sums of money on said production; that said Ann Christy “is of a special and unique type of motion picture actress whose appearance, action and characteristics cannot easily be duplicated or represented by any substitute or double whom plaintiff might easily employ for the completion of said picture” (italics ours); that on said date said Ann Christy was injured by the negligence of defendants, as specified, by reason whereof she was unable to continue in said employment, and that as a direct result of such injury plaintiff was deprived of her services to its damage in the sum of $20,000. A demurrer on both general and special grounds was interposed to such complaint and was sustained with leave to amend. Plaintiff elected…

I concur. In concurring with the opinion and in the judgment I am constrained to remark that there should be legislative action limiting the sum possible of recovery in some cases of negligence. Under conditions that gave rise to the common law the recovery by an employer for an injury to a servant through negligence could not have reached a very high figure. Under the prevailing contractual value of specialists and of artists an injury to such an one would not only impose a duty upon the tort-feasor of compensating dependents, but of compensating those interested in the contract. Examples could readily be given. The law of negligence is not generally punitive; and even if it were, an injury to an artist of great ephemeral popularity should not present the possibility of financially wrecking an ordinarily successful citizen. Reasonable protection by insurance in these days of accidents is practicable only against the payment of damages for injuries inflicted upon persons in the ordinary strata of life.