Title: Hardin v. Sellers

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

117 So. 2d 383 (1960)
F. L. HARDIN
v.
Velma SELLERS, as Adm'x, etc.
2 Div. 395.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 14, 1960.
Rives, Peterson, Pettus & Conway, Birmingham, and Josiah Robins Bonner, Camden, for appellant.
Pitts & Pitts and Cecil C. Jackson, Jr., Selma, and L. Y. Sadler, Jr., Camden, for appellee.
SIMPSON, Justice.
This is an appeal from a jury verdict and a judgment rendered in the Circuit Court of Wilcox County and from the judgment of that court overruling appellant's motion for a new trial. The suit was under the Homicide Act (Tit. 7, § 123, Code 1940) to recover damages for the death of appellee's intestate, James C. Sellers, as a result of a collision between an automobile driven by Sellers and an automobile driven by the appellant at the intersection of Alabama Highway No. 28 and Alabama Highway *384 No. 5 in Wilcox County. Appellee's complaint as amended contained three counts, two in simple negligence and one in wantonness. The defendant filed written pleas of not guilty, the general issue and contributory negligence. The jury awarded the appellee a verdict in the amount of $22,500 against the appellant and judgment was entered accordingly. Appellant's motion for a new trial was overruled.
The primary matter argued by appellant as error impresses us as most meritorious, and since a reversal is necessary, we will only discuss this one point.
The administratrix who sued was the widow of James C. Sellers. In his final appeal to the jury the attorney for the appellee thus argued:
"The Court: I overrule.
"Mr. Wynn: We except."
It appears that the learned trial court either misconceived the measure of damages in such cases or inadvertently overlooked the principle to the effect that damages recoverable under the Homicide Statute are punitive, as distinguished from actual or compensatory damages. Tit. 7, § 123, Code of Alabama, 1940; Bell v. Riley Bus Lines, 257 Ala. 120, 57 So. 2d 612; Day v. Downey, 256 Ala. 587, 56 So. 2d 656; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Williams, 251 Ala. 516, 38 So. 2d 334; Kurn v. Counts, 247 Ala. 129, 22 So. 2d 725; Hampton v. Roberson, 231 Ala. 55, 163 So. 644; Southern Railway Company v. Sherrill, 232 Ala. 184, 167 So. 731; Heath v. United States, D.C., 85 F. Supp. 196; Jack Cole, Inc. v. Walker, 240 Ala. 683, 200 So. 768.
In an action under Wrongful Death Statute, the court should sustain objection to argument of counsel for plaintiff asking the jury to award plaintiff, the administratrix, damages to compensate her for the death of her husband. Tit. 7, § 123, Code of Alabama, 1940; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio R. Co. v. Williams, supra; Richmond & Danville R. Co. v. Freeman, 97 Ala. 289, 11 So. 800; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Perkins, 1 Ala.App. 376, 56 So. 105.
While it might have been purely unintentional on the part of counsel to make a plea for sympathy for the widow by the above quoted argument, yet it could clearly be so construed, by asking the jury to "compensate her [the widow] for the death of her husband". This construction is fortified by the following appearing in the general oral charge of the court:
It would seem from this excerpt from the court's oral charge that he was, at least, implying that compensatory damages might be awarded under the negligence counts, but that under the wanton count the jury could not award "damages which would be compensatory but would be awarded in the way of punitive damages".
In evaluating the amount of injury such an argument might have on the defendant's case, our recent cases have said that the test to be applied in determining whether the verdict and judgment should be reversed because of improper argument of counsel, is not whether it did wrongfully influence the verdict, but whether it might have done so. Williams v. City of Anniston, 257 Ala. 191, 58 So. 2d 115; McLemore v. International Union, 264 Ala. 538, 88 So. 2d 170; City of Montgomery v. Quinn, 246 Ala. 154, 19 So. 2d 529; Roan v. State, 225 Ala. 428, 143 So. 454.
We are mindful of the cases which hold that the damages which are recoverable under the Homicide Statute are payable to the estate of the party slain, but as stated in Richmond & Danville R. Co. v. Freeman, supra [97 Ala. 289, 11 So. 801], in speaking of the statute:
See also South & North Alabama Railroad Co. v. Sullivan, 59 Ala. 272; Savannah & Memphis Railroad Co. v. Shearer, 58 Ala. 672.
Indeed, the recovery does not go to the wife or the husband, but to the estate of the decedent as stated in South & North Alabama Railroad Co. v. Sullivan, supra, 59 Ala. at page 279:
In view of the long established law on the question, we are constrained to order a reversal of the cause.
Reversed and remanded.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and GOODWYN and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.