Court Opinion

ID: 9830909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:37:05.703109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:28.275873
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
i | This court has not held, as so emphatically asserted by appellee, that he cannot recover every dollar of damages inflicted upon him by the negligence of appellant, but this court did hold, and reiterates, that he cannot recover for total destruction of the value of his land under a finding that it was only temporarily rendered unfit for agricultural purposes. The answer of the jury was not responsive to the question propounded to-them by the court, and no measure of damages can be applied to their answers. If the land had a value for any purpose immediately after the damages were inflicted, that value should be kept in. view in arriving at the amount of compensation to be awarded the injured party. This is nothing but common sense and justice. No man should be allowed to recover for the full value of his land, and yet retain the land, which, as in this case, had some value. As is usual in overzealous motions for rehearing, it is as- | serted that this court has overruled numbers. | of decisions of other courts, and totally dis*244regarded the former decisions of this court. There is no conflict between the decision of this court and that of any other court in this, or any other state. The evidence tended strongly to show that the value of the land was not totally destroyed, and the jury failed and refused to so find.
[6] It is contended that this court has violated the rules in considering the assignments of appellant, but there is no merit in the contention. It is fundamental error for a judgment to be rendered on the answer of a jury which is not responsive to an issue without which there is no basis for the judgment. The jury evaded an answer to the issue as to what was the value of the land immediately after the alleged injury was inflicted, and there was absolutely no basis upon which to found a judgment for appellee. It is all very well to theorize about the land value being totally destroyed, but the fa'ct remains that the jury failed and refused to so find. The judgment must stand upon the findings of the jury, and not upon theories and hypotheses (however ingeniously and plausibly advanced. If any hardship comes to appellee through the application of the rule that in every case in which damages are sought, compensation, and compensation alone, for injuries can be recovered, it is the rule to which appellee, as others have •done before him, must submit. This court is not responsible for the rule, nor is it the author of it, but in justice and good conscience it will enforce it. The rule of compensation is the rule of justice in every damage suit, and all rules must bend to the demands of that rule. Whenever any arbitrary rule stands in the way of the enforcement of the rule of compensation, it must and will be set aside, without fear and without favor.
[7] If the question of whether the value of the land was totally destroyed or not had not been submitted to the jury, the statement of facts might be consulted to sustain the judgment, but it cannot be done in this case, where the issue was submitted. Terrell v. Proctor, 172 S. W. 996.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.