Texas Midland R. R. v. McKissack Bros.
Texas Midland R. R. v. McKissack Bros.
Opinion of the Court
The appellees, McKissack Bros., a firm composed of Charlie and Bob McKissack, sued the appellant, Texas Midland Railroad, in the county court of Kaufman county, for $355, the value of two horses, hack, and harness. Plaintiff alleged that on or about the 20th day of January, 1912, their horses were killed, harness destroyed, and hack injured by the train of the defendant, Texas Midland Railroad, striking them at the College street crossing, in the city of Terrell. The grounds of negligence relied upon were failure to ring the bell or blow the whistle, and running the train at an excessive and dangerous rate of speed. After a general demurrer and general denial, the defendant answered that the plaintiff’s driver in charge of the team had left them standing on the street without hitching them, and that the team ran away and ran into defendant’s train. The case was tried before a jury on March 29, 1912, and a verdict rendered for plaintiff for the full amount sued for. Defendant’s motion for a new trial having been overruled, it appealed.
There is evidence tending to show that plaintiffs’ nephew was driving their team, and left the team standing unhitched on College street; that the team started to run, one in a trot, and the other in a lope, and they went faster as they approached the crossing; that the fireman first saw the horses, as they approached on his side, about 50 or 60 feet' from the track, and called the engineer’s attention to them, who immediately applied the emergency brakes; that the engineer sitting in the cab on the opposite side from the fireman did not, and could not, see the horses.
The court also probably erred, we think, in permitting the witness Golightly to testify, over the objection of the defendant, that the speed of the train from Greenville, Tex., to Terrell, Tex., was about 22 miles per hour. We do not see the relevancy of this testimony and think it should have been excluded.
The other assignments will be overruled.
Eor the errors indicated, the judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.
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