Case Name: Dallas & Mavis Forwarding Company, Inc. v. Liddell
Court: Supreme Court of Indiana
Jurisdiction: Indiana
Decision Date: 1955-04-22
Citations: 234 Ind. 652
Docket Number: No. 18,609
Parties: Dallas & Mavis Forwarding Company, Inc. v. Liddell.
Judges: Landis, Arterburn and Achor, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Indiana Reports
Volume: 234
Pages: 652–655

Head Matter:
Dallas & Mavis Forwarding Company, Inc. v. Liddell.
[No. 18,609.
Filed April 22, 1955.
Rehearing denied May 27, 1955.
Transfer denied December 15, 1955.]
Roland Obenchain, Jr., Roland Obenchain, Sr., Jones, Obenchain & Butler, all of South Bend, for appellant.
Winslow Van Horne, of Auburn, for appellee.

Opinion:
Bobbitt, C. J.
The principal question raised by the petition to transfer is the correctness of plaintiff's-appellee's Instruction No. 6, which was given by the court. The Appellate Court has held that this instruction as given was improper and that the rights of appellant, under the evidence in this case, were not prejudiced thereby. In this we concur. However, it is proper for the court to instruct the jury that in determining- the amount of damages, if any, it may consider the plaintiff's life expectancy, where there is evidence upon which to base such instruction. Reitz v. Hodgkins (1916), 185 Ind. 163, 169, 112 N. E. 386; Peacock Coal, etc. Co. v. Crawford (1917), 65 Ind. App. 401, 407, 117 N. E. 504.
Whether or not life expectancy, as distinguished from mortality tables, is a matter of judicial knowledge is one which we need not here determine, nor was it necessary for the Appellate Court to do so.
We find no cause for transfer and the petition should be denied.
Petition to transfer denied.
Landis, Arterburn and Achor, JJ., concur.
Emmert, J., dissents with opinion.
. Dallas & Mavis Forwarding Company v. Liddell (1955), 126 Ind. App. 113, 126 N, N. E. 2d 18.