Deutsch v. Hewes Street Realty Corp.

359 F.2d 96 (2nd Cir. 1966)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Mariana Deutsch (P) was injured when the kitchen sink in her apartment gave way and fell on her foot. P alleged that she was unable to bear weight on the toes of her left foot and that she has continued to suffer pain from the comminuted fracture of the distal phalanx of the first toe of her left foot with subungual hematoma extrusion of the nail, swelling, pain, tenderness, and discoloration. P alleges that she was attending beauty school with the plan to open her own shop and that the accident caused her to abandon those plans. P claims that she was unable to make a living as a knitwear mender, the occupation that she had engaged in prior to her short-lived career as a student beautician. P did return to her job as a knitwear mender in January, one month after the accident. P sued Hewes (D) to recover $25,000 in damages for her personal injuries. P alleged federal jurisdiction under ¤1332(a). D denied the existence of a controversy in excess of $10,000 (the then required jurisdictional amount). Interrogatories revealed only $141 in special damages and the right to recover one month's claim for disability which could not possibly exceed $1500. D moved to dismiss the action for lack of jurisdictional amount. The complaint was dismissed when the judge ruled that the claim could not possibly be worth more than $10,000 and that even if a jury returned an award in excess of that amount the court would be obligated to set it aside. P appealed.