Loughran v. Thomas Bros.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Appeal, No. 51, Oct. T., 1916, by defendant, from judgment of Municipal Court, Philadelphia Co., June T., 1915, No. 420, on verdict for plaintiff in case of Francis J. Loughran and Catharine Lough-ran v. Thomas Brothers Company. Trespass to recover damages for the death of a child two years and four months old.
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Appeal, No. 51, Oct. T., 1916, by defendant, from judgment of Municipal Court, Philadelphia Co., June T., 1915, No. 420, on verdict for plaintiff in case of Francis J. Loughran and Catharine Lough-ran v. Thomas Brothers Company. Trespass to recover damages for the death of a child two years and four months old. Before Bonniwell, J. At the trial it appeared that on October 12, 1914, the mother of the child permitted her six-year-old daughter, the eldest of four children, to take the child with her when going on an errand to a nearby store, and that the little' girl was killed by the negligent…
1Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Head, J.,
We think it may now be regarded as settled by the Pennsylvania courts that a human life has a pecuniary value. In an action to recover that pecuniary value, the law requires, as it does in every case, the production of the best evidence that is reasonably available. But it never demands impossible things, and because, in certain cases, affirmative or positive proof is necessarily scant in volume, it sanctions no conclusion that relief for a recognized wrong should therefore be denied. As long ago as the case of Penna. R. R. Co. v. Keller, 67 Pa. 300, Chief Justice Thompson…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Johnson v. Reading City Passenger RailwaySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1894
- McCleary v. Pittsburg Railways Co.Superior Court of Pennsylvania · 1911
- Pennsylvania Railroad v. KellerSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1871
3Cited by5 opinions
- Wilson v. Consolidated Dressed Beef Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1928
- Dattola Et Ux. v. Burt Bros., Inc.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1926
- Kowtko v. Delaware and Hudson Railroad Corp.District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania · 1955
- United States v. KesslerDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania · 1945
- Bickness v. Pittsburgh Railways Co., Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County1931