Case ID: fla_64/html/0407-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Pensacola Sanitarium, a Corporation, Plaintiff in Error, v. Joseph D. Wilkins, Defendant in Error.
    
    Where an injury is a superficial burn, not permanent in its nature, and the admission of mortuary tables in evidence is followed by an excessive verdict, the judgment will be reversed.
    Appealed from the Circuit Court for Escambia .County.
    The facts in the case are stated in the opinion of the court.
    
      Sullivan & Sullivan, for Plaintiff in Error;
    
      John P. Stokes and R. P. Reese, for Defendant in Error.
   Per Curiam.

In the Circuit Court for Escambia county Wilkins recovered judgment for $1,250.00, with interest from date of suit, against the Pensacola Sanitarium, a corporation, for personal injuries to the plaintiff whose leg was burned by a hot water bottle left in plaintiffs bed while he was a patient in the sanitarium. On writ of error taken by the defendant corporation it is contended that errors in the proceedings were committed by the trial court, among them being the admission of mortuary tables in evidence and in not granting a new trial on the grounds that the verdict is excessive and not justified by the evidence.

The injury in this case was a superficial burn several inches long, or perhaps two inches wide, between the knee and the ankle. It is apparent from the testimony that the injury is not permanent or of a very serious nature, and the admission of the mortuary tables in evidence was well calculated under the circumstances to influence the jury in returning a verdict that is clearly excessive in amount.

The judgment is reversed.

Whitfield, C. J., and Shackleford, Cockrell and Hocker, J. J., concur.

Taylor, J., absent on account of illness, concurred in the opinion as prepared.