Patapsco Loan Co. v. Hobbs

Burke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a judgment for thirteen hundred dollars entered in the Superior Court o-f Baltimore City in ²²⁶ the suit of Rezin G-. Hobbs against The Patapsco Loan Company of Baltimore City, a corporation, and Charles W. Plart. The suit was brought to' recover damages for wrongs and injuries alleged to have been committed against the wife of the plaintiff, Mignonette K. Hobbs, whereby the plaintiff was deprived of the services and society of his wife and was subjected to the expenditure of large sums of money for her medical care and attention.

Mrs. Hobbs, the wife, had previously recovered a judgment against the same defendants for the identical wrongs committed against her, and that judgment on appeal was affirmed by this Court in 129 Maryland, 9 . As the pleadings and many of the facts in that case are practically identical with those contained in this record, and were fully discussed by Judge Briscoe, who delivered the opinion in that case, there is no necessity of restating them in this opinion. The Reporter, however, will set out the declaration in the report of the case. Some of the principles of law applicable to this case were also established in the former case.

It is sufficient to say that the plaintiff offered abundant evidence tending to support the second and third counts of the declaration, viz, that the plaintiff’s wife was ill and confined to her bed in her home, No. 1115 West Mulberry street, on the 2nd day of February, 1915, and that on that day Charles W. Hart, one of the defendants and an agent of The Patapsco Loan Company, the other defendant, acting within the scope of his employment, without the permission and against the protest of the wife of the plaintiff, forced his way into her room, and, whilst aware of her condition, by threatening! words and actions so terrified and shocked her that she was caused to suffer great physical pain and mental anguish and thereby suffered a serious and permanent impairment of her health, and was rendered so ill as to be unable to attend to her ordinary household duties, or to render any aid or assistance to the plaintiff. The plaintiff further offered evidence tending to prove that he was obliged to employ domestic help' to do the work ²²⁷ formerly done by his wife and which she was rendered unable to do by reason of the acts of the defendants. He further offered evidence tending to prove that as a result of the wrongs complained of in the declaration his wife was obliged to undergo two* surgical operations and that he was subjected to large expense. The appellants complained that the verdict of the jury was greatly in excess of the loss suffered by the plaintiff.

But that is a matter which this Court can not pass upon. The record shows that the defendants filed a motion for a new trial which “the Court granted on terms,” viz, that the plaintiff would remit five hundred dollars, and that the defendants would waive their right of appeal. The plaintiff did signify his willingness to remit that amount, but the defendants declined to waive an appeal, and final judgment on the verdict was entered. The lower Court was the exclusive tribunal to pass upon the alleged excessiveness of the verdict, and the defendants having declined to accept its judgment upon that question, they can not urge it here, because this Court has no jurisdiction to determine it.

During the course of the trial the defendants reserved three exceptions to rulings on evidence and one to the action of the Court on their prayers. As the rulings on the prayers present the important questions in the case, they will be first considered. The defendants’ first prayer, as offered, was properly refused, as it denied a recovery unless the jury found that the defendant Hart assaulted Mrs.