Court Opinion

ID: 9533386
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:31:19.991935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:02.351992
License: Public Domain

*364On Rehearing.
TAYLOR, Justice.
In her petition for rehearing defendant (respondent) urges that instructions numbers 12 and 14 were proper in view of plaintiffs’ pleadings and the theory of the case expressed thereby. The error committed in the giving of those instructions being the sole ground of reversal, we granted a rehearing.
After setting out the injuries to the minor, Kenneth Gayhart, paragraph VI of the first cause of action concludes, “plaintiffs have been generally damaged in the sum of $20,000.00.”
In the second cause of action, seeking recovery for medical and hospital expenses, the damage is alleged jointly as follows:
“That the expenses incurred by Kenneth Gayhart, and Mildred Gayhart and Edgar O. Gayhart, parents of Kenneth Gayhart, to the time of this complaint for the above are approximately $1,120.00 and will be more as time goes on and that plaintiffs have been specially damaged by the amount of such costs which have already been incurred and which shall be incurred in the future.”
The allegations of the third cause of action for damages to the motor scooter do not indicate who suffered the loss alleged.
The prayer of the complaint is for a joint and single judgment in favor of plaintiffs and against the defendant for the damages claimed in all of the causes of action.
In her answer the defendant pleads contributory negligence of the minor as a defense against all three causes of action; but the contributory negligence of the parents is pleaded only as a separate defense to the second and third causes of action.
It appears that plaintiffs by pleading that they are all jointly entitled to judgment against defendant for all of the several damages alleged in their separate causes have invited the error committed by the court.
We also note that plaintiffs, in their motion for new trial, specified as grounds therefor certain errors in law occurring at the trial, but did not specify therein the giving of instructions 12 and 14. R10-602, R10-604 I.C. Appellants may not be limited on this appeal to the errors specified in the notice of motion for a new trial, because the appeal here is from both the judgment and the order denying a new trial. Nevertheless, their failure to specify the error now urged is in keeping with the theory upon which they presented their cause in their complaint and upon the trial.
Plaintiffs, by their pleading, having induced and invited the error, the cause *365will not be reversed therefor. Gaskill v. Washington Water Power Co., 17 Idaho 128, 105 P. 51; Trask v. Boise King Placers Co., 26 Idaho 290, 142 P. 1073; Dover Lumber Co. v. Case, 31 Idaho 276, 170 P. 108; Clear Lake Power & Imp. Co. v. Chriswell, 31 Idaho 339, 173 P. 326; Powers v. Security Sav. & Trust Co., 38 Idaho 289, 222 P. 779; Radermacher v. Daniels, 64 Idaho 376, 133 P.2d 713; Driesbach v. Lynch, 74 Idaho 225, 259 P.2d 1039. Cf. Peterson v. Universal Automobile Ins. Co., 53 Idaho 11, 20 P.2d 1016; Gibbs v. Claar, 58 Idaho 510, 75 P.2d 721; Dawson v. Salt Lake Hardware Co., 64 Idaho 666, 136 P.2d 733; Kunkle v. Clinking Beard, 66 Idaho 493, 162 P.2d 892; Wormward v. Taylor, 70 Idaho 450, 221 P.2d 686; Laidlaw v. Barker, 78 Idaho 67, 297 P.2d 287. See also, Cook v. Lammy, 73 Idaho 445, 253 P.2d 244.
The court’s instruction, covering the defendant’s answer, limited the defense of contributory negligence on the part of the parents to their own cause of action for medical and hospital expenses. Thus it is doubtful whether the jury was in fact misled by instructions 12 and 14. A review of the evidence also indicates that the proof of contributory negligence on the part of the minor is so clear and convincing as to render it highly improbable that a new trial would result in a verdict for plaintiffs, or either of them.
The judgment and mandate set forth in the original opinion is vacated and the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
Costs to respondent.
KEETON, C. J., and PORTER, SMITH and McQUADE, JJ., concur.