Shaw v. Bridge , 135 Me. 516 ( 1938 )

This case is before us on exceptions to the acceptance of a report of a Referee. The plaintiff seeks to recover for personal-injuries growing out of an automobile accident. The defendant abandons all objections to the Referee’s findings except a claim that the damages awarded are excessive. Damages were assessed at $2000 and a credit was given of $300 which had been paid to the plaintiff by Ervin A. Call in whose car she was a passenger and to whom she had given a covenant not to sue.

The plaintiff’s injuries consisted of severe lacerations to her face. When these wounds were sutured glass was removed from her face and for a period of several months thereafter glass continued to come to the surface. She was in a hospital for eleven days. The Referee was justified in finding that both her eyesight and hearing were affected and that for a long time after the accident she suffered pain from the blows which she received in the accident.

This Court has so many times laid down the rule that exceptions will not lie to findings of fact by a Referee if there is any evidence to support them that it seems almost unnecessary to say so again. Staples v. Littlefield, 132 Me., 91, 167 A., 171; Throumoulos v. First National Bank of Biddeford, 132 Me., 232, 169 A., 307. Apparently, however, the rule is not even now fully understood.

H. R. Coolidge, for plaintiff. Fellows <§■ Fellows, for defendant.

Not only is there evidence to support the findings of the Referee but the damages awarded seem very reasonable.

The entry will be: Exceptions overruled. Judgment on the report.