Ft. Worth & D. C. Ry. Co. v. Matador Land & Cattle Co.
Ft. Worth & D. C. Ry. Co. v. Matador Land & Cattle Co.
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a verdict and judgment rendered in the district court of Hartley county in a suit filed by appellee as plaintiff against appellant as defendant for the recovery of $10,436 damages, alleged to have been sustained by reason of unreasonable delays in furnishing cars upon requests by appellee for the shipment of certain cattle from stations of Estelline and Murdo on appellant’s line of road in Texas to Kansas City in the state of Missouri; vefdiet and judgment having been rendered 'below for the sum of $4,800. Appellant pleaded in defense a general denial, *462 contributory negligence, and a car shortage throughout the country by reason of which it was in the exercise of ordinary care unable to get and furnish the cars at an earlier date than it did furnish them. It also pleaded the two-year statute of limitations as a bar to appellee’s recovery. The record shows that appellee’s original petition was filed on August 27, 1908, containing the following allegations among others: “That on or about October 1, 1907, plaintiff made application to the defendant and its agents at Channing, Tex., and otherwise, for cars and facilities for the shipment of said cattle above named, which were located on plaintiff’s ranch near Murdo, advising the defendant that ears and a train were wanted in which to ship the said cattle from the station of Murdo to Dalhart on defendant’s line of railway, en route to Kansas City, and that said cattle would be tendered for shipment on October 15, 1907. * * * That on or about September 16, 1907, the plaintiff made application to the defendant and its agents at Estelline, Tex., and otherwise, for cars and facilities for the shipment of said cattle above named which were located on plaintiff’s ranch in Motley county, advising the defendant that cars and two trains were wanted in which- to ship the said cattle from the station Estelline to Dalhart, en route to Kansas Oity, and that said cattle would be tendered for shipment on the 5th or 6th of October, 1907. * * * That for 20 years defendant had known that plaintiff must in the fall of the year ship large numbers of cattle to market. * * * That on the dates named the plaintiff owned 1,104 head of high grade cattle (the cattle in controversy) on its ranch in Motley county, which it desired to ship from Estelline over defendant’s line of railway and connecting carriers to Kansas City, there to be sold on the market. * * * That on or about September 15, 1907, the plaintiff made application to defendant and its agents at Estelline, Tex., and otherwise, for cars and facilities for the shipment of said cattle above named, advising the defendant that cars and two trains were wanted in which to ship the said cattle from the station of Estelline to Dalhart, en route to Kansas City. That the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway system was the connecting carrier at Dalhart, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway was the connecting carrier at Wash-burn in reaching Kansas City, and plaintiff was willing that the said cattle might be transported by either of the said routes to Kansas City. The defendant was therefore fully advised of the intent and purpose of the plaintiff with reference to said cattle and said orders for cars were accepted. * * * That on November 11th and 12th said cattle were loaded at Estelline and transported via Dalhart to Kansas City. * * * That if said cattle had been shipped promptly on the date for which the cars were ordered they would have reached Kansas City in better condition. * * * ”
The cause proceeded to trial below on ap-pellee’s original petition and appellant’s first amended answer, and, after both parties had closed as to the introduction of evidence, appellant move the trial court to withdraw and exclude from the consideration of the jury all the evidence of appellee showing that it had ordered cars for shipment from Estelline and Murdo to Kansas City, on the ground that appellee had alleged a request for cars for shipment to Dalhart, Tex., instead of to Kansas City, Mo., which motion was overruled, whereupon appellee, with the consent of the trial court, filed a trial amendment, reading as follows: “Comes now the plaintiff, and with leave of' the court files this, its trial amendment, and amends and supplements its original petition, and says that the application and notices for cars in this case were in each case for shipment to the Kansas City market, and as to the Es-telline shipment the application was by letter bf date September 15, 1907, which has since its date been in the hands of defendant until produced under notice to do so at the trial; that plaintiff did not remember the exact language of said notice, and, in fact, it was supplemented by phone and personal conversation with defendant’s agents, and that thereby defendant was fully advised that the plaintiff preferred that said shipment be routed via Dalhart and the Rock Island Railway, the Santa Fé being the only other practicable and available route, and that, at all events, the shipment was to be made to Kansas City, and that the orders for cars were made to conform to this idea and were worded accordingly. The application and notice in the Murdo shipment was oral, but was substantially to the same effect and was for cars for a shipment via Dalhart as a matter of preference and on to Kansas City. The application for the Estelline shipment was dated September 15, 1907, and was for 17 cars for October 5th and 17 cars for October 6, 1907, and the application for the Murdo shipment was made on October 1, 1907, for 16 cars for October 5, 1907, and was afterwards reduced to 11 cars, and the number ordered, to wit, 39, were loaded at Estelline in the final shipment of the cattle. While the letter application designated the cars preferred as Rock Island cars this was only intended as a designation of the way it was desired to route the cattle, and plaintiff was not intending to define ownership of the cars, and simply wanted cars to go by that route, and it was not intended to limit the defendant in the kind.or class of cars and the application wps by defendant so construed. Plaintiff may have also perferred the cattle to go through in the same cars, but wanted them shipped out promptly, even if they had to be Chang *463 ed into other ears at connecting point. This trial amendment is filed in response to the motion to strike out all evidence as to application for cars because it is claimed that the allegations in original petition are so narrow as to allege that the applications were for cars to ship to Dalhart only, and not via Dalhart to market at Kansas City as the route preferred as is here now alleged.” The same was filed February 28, 1911, much more than two years after the cause of action sued on had accrued. On the same day, appellant filed and urged his motion to strike out said trial amendment, for reasons, among others, that it set up a new cause of action. This motion being by the trial court overruled, appellant procured leave of the court to file, and did file, its answer to ap-pellee’s cause of action as set up in said original petition and in said amendment, in which answer, among other things, the statute of limitations of two years was pleaded as a bar to appellee’s cause of action as set up in said original petition as changed by said trial amendment.
What we have said in disposing of appellant’s first assignment necessarily results in our overruling this proposition under the second assignment. The other proposition under the second assignment is as follows: “The evidence fails to show that the failure of appellant to furnish the cars requested by appellee at an earlier date than they were furnished was a result of any negligence on the part of appellant, but, on the contrary, showing as it did that no effort on the part of appellant would have enabled it to furnish the cars earlier, the court should have granted a new trial.” An inspection we think of the second assignment will show that no such question as is sought to be raised under this proposition was in any way suggested in the assignment under which the proposition is submitted. We are of the opinion, however, that there is evidence in the record from which a jury was warranted in finding that the injuries sustained by appellee resulted from the- negligence of appellant in the particular complained of or suggested in this proposition. Eor the reasons given, appellant’s second assignment will be overruled.
As the testimony is sufficient to warrant the conclusion that as a result of the efforts of appellee the Rock Island Railway Company saw fit to permit the use of its cars by the Denver road to handle appellee’s *465 shipments and not for general use, we think that the appellant company was not justified in refusing to use the cars so tendered for the purposes and under the circumstances indicated by this record, and think we are amply supported in this conclusion by the opinion of the court in the case of Texas & Pacific Railway Company v. Shawnee Cotton Oil Company et al., 55 Tex. Civ. App. 183, 118 S. W. 776, in which we think the same doctrine was announced as is here announced by us, and the Supreme Court in that case refused a writ of error. Because we think that, in so far as the requested charge contained the law applicable to this case, the issue was properly submitted to the jury by the court in his main charge, appellant’s third assignment will' be overruled.
As appellant’s fourth assignment of error is based upon the proposition that it could not be held guilty of negligence for failure to accept and use the cars of the Rock Island Railway Company for the purposes and as indicated in this opinion in disposing of the third assignment, the conclusion reached by us in disposing of that assignment necessarily results in our overruling appellant’s fourth assignment
Believing that the trial court had the power and jurisdiction to try and dispose of the case and appellant having failed to point out any reversible error in its brief, the judgment of the trial court will be affirmed, and it is so ordered.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ft. Worth D.C. Ry. Co. v. Matador Land Cattle Co., Limited. [Fn&8224]
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Published