Rodriquez

This is an appeal by defendant from an order granting plaintiff’s motion for a new trial. The complaint alleges that the defendant “wrongfully, unlawfully, maliciously and violently assaulted plaintiff and struck him in the face and knocked him down upon said sidewalk, severely and permanently injuring said plaintiff”; that by reason thereof the plaintiff incurred hospital expenses in the sum of $115, doctor’s bills in the sum of $128 and drug-bills in the sum of $22.40, and was otherwise damaged in the sum of $10,000. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for “$128.00 special damages for physician’s services” and “$9,25 special damages for drugs.”

At the time the injury was inflicted the plaintiff was eighty years of age and the defendant was “an able-bodied, vigorous man in middle age.” "While in conversation with a third man on the street, the defendant accidently stepped on plaintiff’s foot, whereupon the latter remonstrated and in an altercation which followed the blow was struck of which complaint is made. Defendant’s blow caused the plaintiff to fall to the sidewalk, his face striking the pavement. Either from the blow or the fall the plaintiff was rendered…