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161 Mich. 303

Malkowski v. Olfs

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided May 7, 1910

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1910-05-07

Case by Joseph Malkowski against Peter Olfs for personal injuries. A judgment for defendant non obstante veredicto is reviewed by plaintiff on writ of error. This is an action to recover damages for a personal injury received by the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant on February 13, 1908.

Relies on Central Savings Bank v. O'Connor · Cousins v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. · Burke v. Bay City Traction & Electric Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1910-05-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1935

6 state decisions

40191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Stone, J.

¶1{after stating the facts). This declaration was not demurred to. The logic of the verdict of the jury was that the defendant, without notice or warning to the plaintiff, let go his hold upon the box, and precipitated the entire weight upon the plaintiff, and that the box fell upon the plaintiff and injured him, and that the defendant did not order the truck driver to move the truck forward while the box was being unloaded. If the court was correct in that part of the charge quoted, and we think it was, the jury might find the defendant liable, even although he did not order the driver to move the truck forward. Where proof of a portion of the facts alleged will support a recovery, a failure of proof as to the rest is immaterial. Marquet v. La Duke, 96 Mich. 596 (55 N. W. 1006). Evidence introduced without restriction is available on any issue which it tends to prove, and which is within the pleadings. 17 Cyc. p. 820.

¶2The allegation that the defendant, without notice or *310warning to the plaintiff, released his hold upon the box, and thus precipitated it upon the plaintiff, and injuring him, stated a substantive cause of action, and, if proved, would entitle the plaintiff to recover, although the jury found that the defendant did not order the driver to move the truck. If this is so, the special question was not controlling, and the answer in the negative was not inconsistent with the general verdict for the plaintiff. Pigott v. Engle, 60 Mich. 221 (27 N. W. 3); Banner Tobacco Co. v. Jenison, 48 Mich. 459 (12 N. W. 655); Cousins v. Railway Co., 96 Mich. 386 (56 N. W. 14); Central Savings Bank v. O'Connor, 132 Mich. 578 (94 N. W. 11, 102 Am. St. Rep. 433); Burke v. Electric Co., 147 Mich. 172 (110 N. W. 524); Ward v. Campau, ante, 85 (125 N. W. 734). We think that the question was inconclusive, and in no sense controlling of the general verdict. For the error pointed out, the judgment of the circuit court will be reversed.

¶3While we might direct the circuit court to enter a judgment in accordance with the general verdict, owing to the course which the trial took, we have concluded to order a new trial, and the same is ordered accordingly.

Moore, McAlvay, Brooke, and Blair, JJ., concurred.
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