Rephann v. Armstrong

Per Curiam. The appellant, driver of an automobile that injured Mrs. Betty Lee Armstrong, appeals from a judgment in her favor for pain and suffering and permanent injury as well as from a judgment in favor of her husband for her medical expenses and other special damages, and loss of consortium. The accident induced a miscarriage. The errors complained of by the appellant are that the trial court wrongly admitted into evidence medical testimony relating to the death of the baby and that the jury must have awarded damage for the loss of the child, even though the court charged them that they could not do so.

Appellant concedes that the doctor who attended Mrs. Armstrong properly testified that she was eight months pregnant and that she suffered a miscarriage occasioned by the accident. He argues, however, that the doctor should not have been allowed to exhibit to the jury an x-ray of the mother’s pelvis, to explain the bone structure of the mother and the child and to say that the child’s bone structure indicated that the baby had died shortly after the accident, and before the miscarriage. There was no objection to the use of the x-ray and appellant’s counsel did not in terms object to the testimony but did say he did not think it “proper”. Treating the testimony as admitted over