Case ID: mass_160/html/0402-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Field, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Annie A. Graves vs. New York and New England Railroad Company.
    Suffolk.
    November 21, 1893.
    January 6, 1894.
    Present: Field, C. J., Allen, Holmes, Morton, & Barker, JJ.
    
      Motion to change by Amendment the Ad Damnum of a Writ.
    
    A justice of the Superior Court has power, on the plaintiff's motion, to change the ■ ad damnum of a writ from $10,000 to $15,000.
    Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff while a passenger on the defendant’s railroad by a head collision of trains.
    At the trial in the Superior Court, before Bishop, J., it appeared ‘that the ad damnum of the writ was $10,000; that the case was first reached for trial on the afternoon of March 6,1893; that on the morning of that day, and in the lobby, apart from the jury, the plaintiff moved to increase the ad damnum to $20,000, the judge hearing testimony of two medical experts on each side as to the character and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries; and that the defendant objected to the motion, and asked the judge to rule that he had no power to grant the same and raise the ad damnum. The judge refused so to rule, and allowed the ad damnum to be increased to $15,000, and the defendant duly excepted. When the case was tried on March 8, 1893, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $12,500.
    
      F. A. Farnham,, for the defendant.
    
      J. L. Long, for the plaintiff.
   Field, C. J.

The defendant’s counsel relies only on the first exception. The Superior Court, on the plaintiff’s motion, permitted the plaintiff by amendment to change the ad damnum of the writ from $10,000 to $15,000, and refused to rule that it had no power to permit the ad damnum to be increased, and to this the defendant excepted. We have no doubt that the court had the power. Ellis v. Ridgway, 1 Allen, 501. Hart v. Waitt, 3 Allen, 532. Exceptions overruled.