Taylor v. Lewis
Taylor v. Lewis
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit by Luther Lewis against R. E. Taylor for a wrongful act causing death of plaintiff’s six year old child.
The statute used the word “wrongful” in describing the act. The complaint would be better if it had done so.
The demurrers of defendant to count 1 should have been sustained. Birmingham Ry., Lt. & P. Co. v. Nichols, 181 Ala. 491, 61 South. 361; Kuykendall v. Edmondson, Adm’r, 205 Ala. 265, 87 South. 882; Addington v. Am. Casting Co., 186 Ala. 92, 64 South. 614.
The evidence shows that the child was killed by the car of the defendant while being-run on the streets of Roanoke by his son, nearly 19 years old, with his father (the defendant) by his side on the front seat of the car. lie was running the car for the defendant. The testimony of the plaintiff shows the car was being run at a rate of speed from 15 to 20 miles an hour, and some witnesses said 25 miles, when it ran over the child; the child was near the sidewalk, in the street drain, or with one foot on the sidewalk and the other foot in the street, when struck by the car; and that its sister, .12 years old, and brother, 9 years old, had charge of it, and were near the child when injured. They were going to the home of the, brother of plaintiff at the time. The plaintiff was not present. The street there was about 25 feet wide.
The evidence for defendant tended to show that the child attempted to run across the street just in front of the car, and it was struck-while crossing in or near the middle of the street; the car was running from 10 to 12 miles an hour; as soon as the child attempted to cross the street in front of the car the defendant’s son made use of -all the appliances at hand to stop the car; could not stop it in time, but “did stop it as readily as was possible”; and the street there was about 15 feet wide.
We have read all the‘evidence, and it is clearly a case for the jury to decide. The general charges were properly refused by the court.
The defects in the pleading are cured by the evidence and the oral charge of the court and the written charges asked by the defendant and given by the court. The evidence shows the car belonged to the defendant, it was being run at the time the child was killed by the 18 year old son of the defendant, under defendant’s direction, the defendant being on the front seat of the ear with his son at the time. This being true, with the other evidence, under rule 45 of this court, the case cannot be reversed on account of defects of pleading. Rule 45, 175 Ala. xxi, 61 South, vii; Best Park & Amus. Co. v. Rollins, 192 Ala. 534, 68 South. 417, Ann. Cas. 1917D, 929; Jackson v. Vaughan, 204 Ala. 543, 86 South. 469. This is especially true in view of the fact that there was at least one other count under which the issues of the case were comprehended, and which imposed no greater burden of proof on plaintiff than the eliminated count.
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“I will ask you this question: Could you have stopped the car any earlier than you did; could that car have been stopped any quicker than it was by you at that time ?”
It calls for conclusions that should be drawn by the jury from facts given by the witness. The witness should tell what he did, give the jury all the facts, so they could decide whether he could have “stopped any quicker” or “any earlier” the car “than it was by him.” It is true that conclusions are frequently collective facts that a witness can give, express’an opinion on, when known to him. When the facts can be given, without an opinion, it should be done, and let the jury draw the inferences. In Birmingham R. & E. Co. v. Jackson, 136 Ala. 279, 34 South. 994, the court said:
“The testimony of Ayers that the motorman was ‘doing all ho could to stop’ was illegal.”
In this matter, if error, it was without injury to appellant, as this witness had already testified on defendant’s examination of him as follows:
“When I observed the child,' I put on my brakes as quickly as I could and turned my ear to the left; I did nothing else toward stopping the car; there was nothing else I could have done; it was all I could have done. * * * When I applied the brakes the effect on the car was to lock the rear wheels, and they skidded a little down grade; the right side of my car struck the child.”
See authorities cited and discussed in Cent. of Ga. Ry. Co. v. Jones, 170 Ala. 611, 54 South. 509, 37 L. R. A. (N. S.) 588; Birmingham R. & E. Co. v. Jackson, 136 Ala. 279, 34 South. 994.
Binding no reversible error, the judgment will be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). Count 1 manifested an imperfect effort to state, in the alternative in a single count, these distinct causes of action: (a) A breach of duty by the servant for the consequences of which the master may be responsible; and (b) a breach of duty by the parent predicated of the wrongful act of the child. A general statement of the doctrine to which the latter alternative refers may be found in 20 R. C. L. pp. 630, 631. Such a, pleading is demurrable for misjoinder and indefiniteness, as fully considered and decided in Highland Ave. R. R. v. Dusenberry, 94 Ala. 413, 10 South. 274. See, also, in its line, Nat. Baking Co. v. Wilson, 198 Ala. 90, 95, 73 South. 436, and Birmingham R. R. Co. v. Nicholas, 181 Ala. 491, 500, 503, 61 South. 361, among others. In this instance there is no ground of demurrer taking the objection sustained in the demurrer considered in the Dusenberry Case, supra.
The count 1 avers that the negligent servant and “minor son,” viz. Emmitt Taylor, was “under the control of said B. E. Taylor,” the defendant. The grounds of the demurrer, original and supplementary, were addressed to defects pertaining to the first alternative only, viz. the relation of servant to the defendant as master, not to the latter 'alternative, viz. the accountability, in proper circumstances, of a parent for the conduct of the child. 20 R. C. L., supra. The demurrer went only to a part of the count, and did not purport to challenge the sufficiency of the averments of the latter alternative. A demurrer will not lie to a part of a count. L. & N. v. Hine, 121 Ala. 234, 238, 25 South. 857, and cases there cited; Jackson Lumber Co. v. Trammell, 199 Ala. 550, 74 South. 469, stating the writer’s, application of this rule to that case. Bor this reason the court cannot be put in error for overruling the grounds of demurrer addressed to the first count. A ground of demurrer that a complaint states no cause of action is a general ground, and may he overruled without error where the complaint would support a judgment rested upon it. The rule that a count is no stronger than its weakest averment is not applicable *341 to a count like this. That rule is serviceable and applicable to cases where a material allegation of a single cause of action is alternatively averred.
The demurrer to the fourth count was inapt, and no reversible error was committed in overruling it. The count was defective in that it confused, in some of its averments, the liability of the parent, which results only from the parent's own negligence, with the negligence of the child on account of whose wrongful conduct the parent may be, in proper cases, negligent, and therefore held responsible. The demurrer to count 4 mistook the count as an effort to charge willful or wanton wrong on the part of the defendant; whereas the count’s theory was referable to the doctrine that, in proper cases, imposes liability on the parent for his own negligence predicated of the wrongful conduct of his •child.
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment.
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