Birmingham Ry., Light & Power Co. v. Barranco
Birmingham Ry., Light & Power Co. v. Barranco
Opinion of the Court
Plea 2, the first of the series, would have predicated plaintiff’s contributory negligence of her failure to look and listen for a street car approaching the point of intersection of the street over which the automobile was moving with the street over which the street car was moving; it being alleged that if the plaintiff had so looked or listened she would have discovered the street ear in time to have reported its approach to the driver, whereupon “he would have slowed down or stopped in time to have averted the accident.” The primary duty averred is that plaintiff, a passenger merely, should have looked and listened for the approaching car, which, being observed, would have so advised the plaintiff of its approach as that she could (must) have reported that fact to the driver, over whose operation she is not alleged to have had any authority or control. It is not inappropriate to note that neither in this plea nor in those numbered 3 to 9, inclusive, is it alleged that there was a joint enterprise, nor any relation of master and servant or principal and agent then existing between the driver of the automobile and the plaintiff, a passenger merely, nor that the driver was incompetent, intoxicated, or otherwise inefficient. Elyton Land Co. v. Mingea, 89 Ala. 521, 528, 529, 7 South, 666; Birmingham, etc., Co. v. Baker, 132 Ala. 507, 31 South. 618. Some of the stated alternative factors, absent from the pleas, were present in the case of McGeever v. O’Byrne, 82 South. 508, 1 whore the particular action was by the passenger (guest) against the driver *642 of the automobile, thus, in some respects, distinguishing that decision from the case now under consideration. However, in the lasfe cited decision (McGeever v. O’Byrne), and in Birmingham So. Ry. Co. v. Harrison, 82 South. 534, 2 in response to rehearing therein, many decisions pertinent to this subject are noted, and some were approved and quoted.
For the error committed in sustaining the demurrer to plea 9, the judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Ante, p. 284.
Addendum
On Rehearing.
The application for' rehearing does not at all question the law of the case a’s set forth in the foregoing opinion.
“The rule prevailing in this state is that, where there are several grounds of demurrer, some of which are sufficient and others insufficient, and the judgment sustaining the demurrer is general, the ruling will be referred to the grounds that are well taken. Steiner v. Barker & Co., 108 Ala. 357, 19 South. 386; Tatum v. Tatum, 111 Ala. 209, 20 South. 341; Richard v. Steiner Bros., 152 Ala. 303, 44 South. 562; McDonald et al. v. Pearson, 114 Ala. 630, 641, 21 South. 534; Hull v. Wimberly & Thomas Hdw. Co., 178 Ala. 538, 59 South. 568.”
The rule as thus reproduced is correct and had been repeatedly previously stated by this court. Its application to the state and point of the pleading in the present instance is the only subject of inquiry at this time. The complaint contained counts 1 and 2. The former (1) attributed plaintiff’s injury to simple negligence. In the latter count (2) it appears to have been the pleader’s purpose to attribute the injury to wanton wrong. Whether this intent was appropriately expressed in . the averments of count 2, under the rule of Birmingham Ry., etc., Co. v. Brown, 150 Ala. 327, 43 South. 342; Woodward Iron Co. v. Finley, 189 Ala. 634, 66 South. 587, among others, is not a question necessary to be considered or decided. It is assumed, for the occasion only, that count 2 is an effective wanton count, and that a plea of contributory negligence is no bar to a recovery on a wanton count.
“Plaintiff files demurrers to pleas. Which demurrers are by the court heard and considered and the court is of the opinion said demurrers are well taken as to all of said pleas except plea *644 of general issue.' It is therefore considered and adjudged .by the coürt, and it is the judgment of the court, that demurrers be and they are hereby sustained to all of said pleas except plea of general issue.”
It is manifest that the rule quoted above has no application in this instance. I-Iere plea 9 was interposed as a distinct, separate plea in bar to count 1, as well as to count 2. The fourth ground of demurrer, if it was anything more than a general ground, only assailed it as a sufficient answer to count 2. That ground did not question the sufficiency of plea 9 as a sufficient or efficient answer to count 1. In other words, plea 9 was not at all assailed, not questioned in so far as it was separately and severally, addressed, standing as an independent plea', to count 1. Had ground 4 been the only ground in the demurrer (the other grounds were not well taken, as decided in the original opinion), it is obvious that the plea (9) would not have been demurred to in respect of its distinct quality as an answer to count 1. The familiár rule, quoted ante, is simply that the propriety of the action of a trial court in sustaining a demurrer that contains good and bad grounds will be referred to the good grounds; this for the reasons indicated in response to rehearing in Cababa Coal Co. v. Elliott, 183 Ala. 307-310, 62 South. 808. In this instance there was no ground numbered 4 to which the action of the court in sustaining demurrer to plea 9 as an answer to count 1 could be referred.
In Hull v. Wimberly & Thomas Hdw. Co., 178 Ala. 538, 546, 59 South. 568, in the majority opinion, the demurrer was overruled; and, notwithstanding the dissenting view (178 Ala. 551, 552, 59 South. 572, 573), it was held that, under the limited assignment of error there made, error could not he imputed to the trial court. As appears, that decision is without hearing here.
The application for rehearing is denied.
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