El Paso Electric Ry. Co. v. Mebus
El Paso Electric Ry. Co. v. Mebus
Opinion of the Court
This was an action for damages by the appellee, based upon personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by Ms wife. It was averred that Mrs. Mebus was a passenger upon one of the street cars of the appellant, and upon alighting from said car at the intersection of Cotton avenue and Detroit street, in the city of El Paso, she was injured through the negligence of appellant. Upon trial verdict and judgment in appellee’s favor was returned and rendered in the sum of $3,500.
We find that appellee’s wife was injured, as alleged, through the negligence of appel *956 lant, without any contributory negligence upon her part, and that appellee has thereby sustained damage in the amount of the judgment.
To the above-quoted allegations defendant excepted, upon the ground that such damages were too remote and such as would not be contemplated by an accident of the nature complained of. Error is assigned to the refusal of the court to sustain this special exception.
There was no evidence introduced that plaintiff had relinquished his position as jailer, or of his having sustained any financial loss in consequence thereof, or of any expense incurred in bringing his sister-in-law to the city of El Paso, and none of such matters were submitted in the court’s charge as elements of damage, but the same were, in effect, excluded, and the error, if any, in refusing to sustain the exception was therefore harmless. Pullman Palace Car Co. v. Nelson, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 223, 54 S. W. 624; Railway Co. v. O’Donnell, 90 S. W. 889; Land v. Klein, 21 Tex. Civ. App. 3, 50 S. W. 639; Turner v. Faubion, 36 Tex. Civ. App. 314, 81 S. W. 810; Bolton v. Prather, 35 Tex. Civ. App. 295, 80 S. W. 666; Railway Co. v. Pate, 113 S. W. 994; San Antonio Traction Co. v. Bryant, 30 Tex. Civ. App. 437, 70 S. W. 1018. Furthermore, this was a matter which could only have affected the amount of the recovery, and there is no contention that the verdict was excessive. For this further reason, the error was therefore harmless. Railway Co. v. Lynch, 40 Tex. Civ. App. 543, 90 S. W. 511.
Error is assigned to the refusal of this charge, upon the ground that there was a variance between the allegations and the proof of negligence, and the special charge should have been given. We have examined the evidence, and find that there is no substantial variance between the pleading and the proof, and the same was therefore properly refused. It was properly refused for the further reason that it ignores acts of negligence alleged by plaintiff and supported by the evidence, which acts of negligence on the part of the defendant the jury was warranted in finding were concurrent causes with the starting of the car, proximately causing the injury. Railway Co. v. Wall, 110 S. W. 458. The second, third, and fourth assignments are therefore overruled.
In the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth assignments it is objected that the court assumed as undisputed certain facts which should have been submitted to the jury for their determination, and that in this respect the charge violated the rule which forbids any comment upon the weight of the evidence. The charge, considered as a whole, is not subject to the criticisms here made. Furthermore, Mrs. Menus’ testimony that she was a passenger upon the car and was injured in alighting therefrom is amply supported and corroborated by the testimony of other disinterested witnesses, and there is absolutely no basis whatever for the contention that there is no evidence except her own to show that she was a passenger on the car, and that she fell in alighting therefrom. For the reasons indicated, the assignments last noted are overruled.
To this paragraph it is first objected that it submits to the jury an issue not raised by the pleadings, in that the jury is instructed that the defendant would be liable if the place where the car stopped for Mrs. Mebus to alight for any reason was dangerous, or not reasonably safe for her to alight; whereas plaintiff, in his petition, had expressly averred the dangerous condition to be due to the fact that the street adjacent to the track had been excavated and thereby lowered about two feet below the level of the track, so that there was a distance of about three feet from the ear step to the ground.
The court probably committed abstract error, under the state of pleading, in thus charging that the defendant would be liable if the place for any reason was dangerous for Mrs. Mebus to alight from the car, since plaintiff would properly be confined to his allegations respecting the dangerous character of the place. The error, however, we regard as harmless, considering the charge as a whole. The third paragraph is merely an instruction in general terms of defendant’s duty. The fourth paragraph is a like general instruction as to the duties incumbent upon the plaintiff’s wife. The fifth paragraph of the charge is that portion wherein the jury is affirmatively instructed as to the state of facts upon which plaintiff’s recovery must be predicated, and we there find that the court limited that phase of the case relating to the dangerous condition of the street to the excavated and lowered grade of the street, as it was alleged. The charge, considered as a whole and construed in the light of the issues made by the pleadings and evidence, is therefore not subject, to the objections here urged, and the fourteenth assignment is overruled. Railway Co. v. Smith, 65 Tex. 167; Railway Co. v. O’Hare, 64 Tex. 600.
Under the fifteenth assignment it is further objected to the third paragraph of the charge that same assumes a certain state of facts to be negligence upon the part of the defendant and so instructs the jury. By considering merely the isolated and detached sections of the paragraph quoted by appellant, it would seem that this objection is well taken; but examining the paragraph in its entirety it will be found to be not subject to the objection urged. It is merely the statement of the legal conclusion, viz., negligence, which arises from a failure to exercise that degree of care which was required under certain circumstances, and was not error. Railway Co. v. Eddleman, 52 Tex. Civ. App. 181, 114 S. W. 425.
The eighteenth and nineteenth assignments criticise the sixth paragraph of the charge as being confusing, contradictory, irreconcilable, and misleading. It is not so regarded, and the assignments are therefore overruled.
What has been said in disposing of the first assignment also disposes of the twenty-first.
Affirmed.
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