Title: Gilman v. Burlingham
Citation: 188 Or. 418, 216 P.2d 252
Docket Number: N/A
State: Oregon
Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court
Date: March 21, 1950

Affirmed March 21, 1950.
*419 Herbert C. Hardy, of Portland, argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Cake, Jaureguy &amp; Tooze, of Portland.
Warren A. McMinimee, of Tillamook, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was J.S. Bohannon, of Tillamook.
Before LUSK, Chief Justice, and BRAND, BAILEY, HAY, and LATOURETTE, Justices.
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
*420 LATOURETTE, J.
This is an appeal by defendant from a judgment entered against him in the amount of $6,500.00 for injuries received by plaintiff in an accident involving the truck of defendant and the automobile of plaintiff at the intersection of Highways 101 and 53 at a point commonly known as "Mohler Junction", a short distance north of Wheeler, Tillamook County, Oregon. The plaintiff charged defendant with negligence as follows:
As to the injuries sustained, plaintiff alleged:
Defendant, after certain admissions and denials, pleaded a separate answer to the effect that plaintiff carelessly operated her Ford sedan, that she ran the same into and against the railing of the bridge and turned over on said bridge. The reply denied the allegations in the separate answer.
*421 The first three assignments of error are grouped together by defendant as they all concern "* * * one matter, a swelling of the respondent's body about six weeks after the accident."
Plaintiff's witness, Witt, testified on the subject as follows:
Defendant moved to strike out the above testimony as follows:
Plaintiff's husband testified:
Defendant objected to the above in the following language:
The third assignment goes to the failure of the court to give the following instruction requested by the defendant:
*423 It will be observed that defendant's objections were confined to the proposition that the swelling was in no way connected with the accident.
The defendant contends that the swelling was occasioned by novocaine injections given by plaintiff's physician approximately six weeks after the accident. He states in his brief:
The evidence is that plaintiff went to her doctor for treatment after the accident, and during the course of the treatment, he gave her novocaine injections, after which she suffered a swelling of parts of her body.
It is the law with respect to compensatory damages that a tort-feasor is liable to the person injured for all the natural and direct proximate consequence of his wrongful act or omission.
It is said in McDonough v. National Hospital Ass'n. et al, 134 Or. 451, 460, 294 P. 351:
1, 2. The court committed no error in permitting the evidence regarding the swelling to remain in the case and in failing to give the requested instruction.
The fourth assignment of error is directed to the testimony of plaintiff's witness, Foree. The following occurred at the trial:
It will be noted that defendant's objection was directed to the absence in the complaint of an allegation that plaintiff had kidney trouble, and he further asked to have an "exception noted" continuing to this line of testimony. Under the defendant's fourth assignment of error contained in his brief, his points and authorities do not coincide with the objections made by him at the trial but are confined to the lack of qualifications of Foree, a lay witness, to testify to matters calling for expert medical opinion.
3. Since the defendant did not raise the objection in the lower court that he now urges here, this assignment of error cannot be considered.
4, 5. The fifth assignment of error is directed to the court's permitting plaintiff to amend her complaint at *426 the conclusion of the trial by inserting the following: "that her kidneys were affected." In the first place, defendant in his objection to this line of testimony suggested an amendment to the pleadings by the plaintiff, and it ill behooves him at a later time to object to such amendment. In the second place, plaintiff herself and her husband testified that plaintiff had no control of her kidneys, and that pads had to be put on the bed so that she would not wet the bed. Such testimony was given without objection on the part of the defendant and without any motion to strike the same, and therefore, such evidence, being a part of the record, has probative value. Egli v. Hutton et al, 135 Or. 175, 178, 294 P. 347. If such evidence was of a substantial nature, the court had the authority to permit the amendment to conform to the proof. Lamb v. Woodry, 154 Or. 30, 39, 58 P. (2d) 1257, 105 A.L.R. 914.
However, it is contended that there was no substantial evidence of a kidney ailment to warrant an amendment since lay witnesses were not qualified to testify to a matter about which only an expert could have knowledge.
Throughout defendant's brief, defendant treats such kidney trouble as if there was a claim on the part of the plaintiff that there was an injury to the kidneys. We believe this construction is too strict and narrow. The organs of a person's body may be affected in many ways directly or indirectly. It is well known that fright, excitement or a nervous condition following a back or spine injury oftentimes affect the kidneys to such an extent that a party may have incontinence of urine. Funk and Wagnalls dictionary defines "affect" as follows: "to have an effect upon; act upon; lay hold *427 of; impress; influence; change; as, worry affects the mind."
6, 7. The evidence did not go so far as to imply that the kidneys were injured or damaged, merely affected. The testimony concerning plaintiff's kidney trouble was in all instances employed with respect to plaintiff's urinary incontinence. Such allusion to kidney trouble was typically a layman's description in a rough, general way of urinary incontinence. It is the law that in a case of this kind a lay witness may testify to his observations of the external manifestation of a person's physical condition. Shaw v. Pacific Supply Cooperative et al, 166 Or. 508, 513, 113 P. (2d) 627. In the somewhat similar case of Wilson v. State Industrial Accident Commission, 162 Or. 588, 599, 94 P. (2d) 129, the court said:
For the above reasons, this assignment of error is without merit.
The sixth assignment of error goes to the failure of the court to give the instruction requested by defendant, i.e., "the jury should disregard the evidence in the case in connection with the kidney ailment." This assignment of error is without merit because of our ruling on the former assignments of error touching this matter.
8. The seventh and eighth assignments of error are directed to the failure of the court to give instructions taking from the jury the allegations in regard to keeping "a proper or any lookout" and "his truck under control". The court instructed the jury that it could consider the above allegations in arriving at its verdict, and there was no exception taken by the defendant in the giving of such instructions. It argued that since there was no impact between the vehicles, if defendant's truck was not on the wrong side of the road, lookout and control could not possibly have caused the accident. Since the overwhelming weight of evidence is that the defendant's truck was on its wrong side of the road, such instructions, if erroneous, were not prejudicial and did not substantially affect the rights of the defendant. § 1-1011, O.C.L.A.
There being no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.