Case ID: ohio-law-abs_2/html/0570-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "CUSHING, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

No. 581
    CINCINNATN TRAC. CO. v. FELDMAN
    Ohio Appeals, 1st Dist., Hamilton County
    No. 2290.
    Decided Jan. 7, 1924
    480. NEGLIGENCE — Proof of value of the use of a car during the time owner was deprived of the use by the injury to it, by company’s negligence.
    Attorneys — John M. McCaslin, for Traction Co ; Edwin G. Becker, for Feldcamp; all of Cincinnati.
   CUSHING, J.

Epitomized Opinion

Published Only in Ohio Law Abstract

Feldcamp brought an action in the Cincinnati Superior Court against the Cincinnati Traction Co. to recover damage to his automo-bilej caused by the negligence of the company, claiming to recover the reasonable cost of the íepairs, and for the loss of the use of his car for six weeks. Feldcamp was operating a taxicab business, and the only evidence offered in the trial court of the value of the use of the car was its gross earnings per day when itt was in use.

On the question as to the value of the use of the car, the Court of Appeals held the proper rule to be that when, a person is deprived of the use of valuable property, his damages are the expense of hiring the property which he is forced to substitute for it, citing the case of Mayor v. Cohen, 12 QA. 134. As there was no testimony offered in the trial court as to whether or not there were cars in the market for hire, and as the court erroneously instructed the jury that the value of the time during which the use of the car was lost was to be determined upon the bases of the reasonable value of the use of a similar automobile in the city at or about the time when the collision occurred, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgmentt of the Superior Court, and remanded the case for a new trial.