Bowling v. Memphis & Charleston Railroad
Bowling v. Memphis & Charleston Railroad
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
These actions - were brought to recover damages for injuries to persons and property.. The principal, if not the only defense, was that the injury resulted from the negligent or unskillful management of a horse in making too short a turn and running the buggy into a gutter and upsetting it. The entire evidence for the company is directed to the attempt to establish such facts. The charge of the circuit judge, as appears in the record, is as follows:' “That the plaintiffs’ claims were rested on the alleged negligence of . defendant; that the common law rules of negligence (which were explained), applied to the cases; that a violation of the city ordinance, if any there had been, might be looked to by•the jury as a circumstance; that the burden of proof was on the plaintiffs, and closing with instructions as to the matter of exemplary damages, which was left to the discretion of the jury, in ease they had adequate evidence.”
The above synopsis is very comprehensive, and as no exception is taken to the charge, we must conclude it was satisfactory to the parties.
After the jury had retired, defendant’s counsel requested that it be recalled and the following given: “If the jury find from the evidence that the plaintiff? Geo. R. Bowling, drove his horse to within about
It is nowhere claimed that his Honor had not ■already' fully charged upon the point suggested in the request, and which, as we have already said, was the ■sole ground of defense relied upon. The synopsis' •of the charge is broad enough to have included the matter' of request. No grounds are laid for the failure to ask the charge at the proper time. The learned and watchful counsel could not, we think, have overlooked his only hope of successful resistance •to a recovery. While it may be proper, in some instances, that a jury should be recalled and further charged, it should always be upon sufficient reasons. It should appear that the party asking such further charge had forgotten, or that the question had occurred to him only since the charge was given and the jury •retired.
It would be dangerous to allow the recall of a
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.