Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/87

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DANIELS v. PAYNE
63

up by Jerden, and taken to the near-by box-car station of Pickersville. Later he was taken to Turtle Lake, where he received medical attention. He was then taken to a hospital operated by the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association at Brainerd, Minnesota, where he remained for approximately two weeks undergoing treatment for his injuries.

The evidence as to the manner in which the accident occurred is conflicting. The plaintiff and Jerden were the only witnesses giving testimony on this subject. According to the plaintiff, Jerden, at the time of directing him to go back and pick up the can, stated that he would wait; and further, according to his testimony, the car bumped into him just as he was turning after picking up the can. Jerden denied that he had said he would wait, and testified that after the plaintiff left the car he was doing some repair work, fixing the slide lever by tightening the bolt which moves the engine to the gear. While he was tightening this bolt or turning the burr, the wind began to drift the car westward toward the plaintiff. He looked up when he was about 40 feet away from the plaintiff and saw him coming. He continued using the wrench on the burr until he looked up again, when he was about 15 feet from the plaintiff, and, seeing the plaintiff coming along, told him to “look out!’ At this time he stepped back on the brake to stop the car, but the brake had gathered snow and ice, and would not take hold. He testified that the car was barely drifting, and that when the plaintiff came to the car he made an attempt to board it, but lost his hold, and the car hit him on the knee, knocking him backward.

At the hospital in Brainerd, plaintiff’s teeth were repaired and his wounds generally were attended to. There was a bruised, swollen place in the lumbar region of the back which required an incision for draining off the accumulated blood serum. The plaintiff returned to McClusky about April 22d, but did not go to work at that time. He then went to the vicinity of Mott, where his family operated a farm. He made a second trip to the hospital at Brainerd in the latter part of May, but it seems that he received no treatment. During the latter part of the month of June and the first part of July, the plaintiff took eight treatments of an osteopathic doctor at Mott, named Allen. Plaintiff testified to pains in the head which frequently prevent sleep; to weakness of the back and one knee, rendering him unable to work. But the doctor that gave him attention at the hospi-