Court Opinion

ID: 9587800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:26:25.758266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:32.222993
License: Public Domain

*496On Motion for Rehearing.
In her motion for rehearing the defendant contends that the excerpt from the charge dealt with in the second division of the opinion was in reality a charge on “lost future earnings” and not a charge on “lost earning capacity,” and that the pleadings and evidence did not authorize such charge.
In support of this contention the defendant cites Railway Exp. Agency v. Mathis, 83 Ga. App. 415, 420 (63 SE2d 921). In Jones v. Hutchins, 101 Ga. App. 141 (113 SE2d 475), it was held that such case was more limited than the rule enunciated by the Supreme Court in earlier cases and there discussed. The petition alleged a total and permanent disability and as shown by the original opinion the evidence authorized a charge on the subject of lost earning capacity. As shown by the Jones case, supra, “This is not a charge on lost future earnings as such; it is a charge on diminished earning capacity, in which case it is quite proper and to the advantage of the defendant for the court to caution the jury that any amount included therein as lost earnings be reduced to present cash value. The only alternative to doing this is to leave the amount to the discretion of the jury, which might well result in the jury including a sum to represent lost future earnings not reduced to present cash value.”
No error harmful to the defendant is shown by these grounds of the motion for new trial.

Rehearing denied.