Missouri, K. T. Ry. Texas v. Churchill
Missouri, K. T. Ry. Texas v. Churchill
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff, S. A. Churchill, brought this suit against the defendant, Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company of *518 Texas, to recover damages sustained by bim' on account of the negligence of the defendant. He alleged, in substance, that he accompanied his mother and her two children to the Union Depot in the city of Galveston, where they intended to take passage on defendant’s passenger train to their home in Smithville, and that he entered the train with his mother and her two children to assist them with their luggage and in finding seats, first apprising the conductor of this fact and the fact that he did not intend to become a passenger, and that, while he was so engaged, the conductor, without warning or notice to him, started said train in motion, and before he could get to the door of the car to alight from the train the conductor shut the vestibule door through which he had entered, and that, although the conductor was shutting the vestibule door when plaintiff first asked him to let him off, he continued to shut, and did thereafter finish shutting, the door, and that, although he requested the conductor to open the door and let him out, he (the conductor) failed and refused to do so and failed and refused to stop the train and let him off, but stood on the trapdoor of the vestibule, thus barring plaintiff himself from opening the door; that the momentum of the train was growing greater all the time; that in order to disembark, and not be carried away, he went on the platform of the car next to the one he had entered, opened the trapdoor and vestibule door on the opposite side of the train from which he entered, and, getting down on the car steps, he grasped the handholds on each side, and leaned back to see if he could get off in safety; and that just as he leaned back to look his head came .in contact with an iron support of the shed under which the train had been standing, knocking him from the steps, and inflicting the injuries for which he sued. The grounds of negligence alleged were in permitting, the train to start while plaintiff was inside the car without affording him a reasonable time to assist said passengers and alight therefrom, and without giving him notice that the train was going to start, in either of which events he could have alighted with safety; in closing the vestibule door while plaintiff was demanding the conductor to permit him to pass through it; and in using a track located in such close proximity to the iron support of the shed as to make the support dangerous to a person who might leave the train on the side upon which it was situated.
Upon the request of appellant the case was submitted to a jury upon special issues in the -form of interrogatories, the issues submitted being as follows:
“ (1) Did the plaintiff, before the train started, inform the conductor of the fact that plaintiff was not going on the train to Smithville?
• “(2) Was the train held before the starting a reasonable length of time to allow plaintiff to get off the train?
“(3) Did plaintiff wait a reasonable length of time to allow the train to be stopped, after plaintiff called out to the conductor that plaintiff wanted to be let off the train?
“(4) Was the defendant guilty of negligence toward plaintiff in using the track as close to the pillar or post as it was used?
“(5) Was plaintiff guilty of contributory negligence in his conduct after the train started?”
The sixth interrogatory propounded was as to what sum of money would reasonably and fairly compensate plaintiff for the injuries sustained by him, laying down in that connection definite rules to guide the jury in arriving at the measure of his damages.’
The jury answered the first, third, and fourth questions in the affirmative, and the second and fifth in the negative, and in answer to the sixth found that a fair and reasonable compensation to plaintiff for the injuries suffered by him was $7,000. Upon the return of the verdict the court required a remittutur by plaintiff of $2,000, which was filed and entered, and thereupon the court rendered judgment in Ms favor for $5,000, from which the defendant, after its motion for a new trial had been overruled, has appealed.
Appellant’s first assignment of error assails the action of the court in submitting interrogatory No. 4 for the determination of the jury, to wit:
“Was the defendant guilty of negligence toward plaintiff in using the track as close to the pillar or post as it was used?”
In St. Louis, Southwestern Ry. v. Wadsack, 166 S. W. 42, the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals had under consideration the question whether assignments of error based upon objections to the court’s charge or predicated upon the refusal of the court to give special charges requested by the appellant, to which action bills of exception were not taken in the trial court and allowed and signed by the judge, could be considered by the appellate court. In a comprehensive opinion written by Associate Justice Hodges the following conclusion'is reached:
“Heretofore the rulings of the court in giving and refusing charges was regarded as excepted to in every instance, without any express reservations by bill or otherwise. The effect of the amendment to article 2061 is to place the rulings of the court in giving or refusing charges in the same category with other rulings not appearing of record as to the formalities required for their consideration on appeal. Appellate courts can now no more review the action of the trial court in giving or refusing charges than they can the rulings admitting or excluding testimony, without proper bills of exception. It also follows that bills of exception relating to the giving or refusing of charges must conform to the requirements provided by statute for bills of exception generally,”.
*519 See, also, Novelty Import Co. v. Griffin, 168 S. W. 85.
Tlie court in the cases cited properly, we think, refused to consider the assignments. We will not pause to set out here the reasons for thus deciding, and content ourselves by referring therefore to the cases referred to. The assignments cannot be considered.
Appellant’s second, third, and fourth assignments challenge in different ways the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict and judgment. This requires a review of the facts.
There was some conflict in the evidence, but we have stated only the facts which most strongly support the plaintiff’s case; for, if these warranted the verdict and judgment in his favor, the case must stand, even though there may have been evidence upon which the jury might have found against him.
The question and answer were objected to by defendant upon the grounds that plaintiff had not sought to recover on the ground of discovered peril; that plaintiff knew the condition of the posts and shed; and that the conductor did not see plaintiff when he was opening the trapdoor or attempting to alight. The assignment cannot be sustained. There was proof that the plaintiff did not know the proximity of the posts to the car or of its existence at this place, and that the conductor did see plaintiff while he was opening the door and attempting to alight. The issue of discovered peril was not submitted as one of the special issues in the case, and the jury could not have based the findings they made upon the testimony objected to. If the admission .of the testimony was error, it could have had no possible influence upon the jury in determining the issues submitted to them by the court’s charge.
The • remaining assignments complain of the verdict as being excessive. It is unnecessary to state in detail the extent of the' injuries which the evidence shows plaintiff suffered. We have carefully considered the evidence upon this issue, and are of the opinion that the verdict, as reduced by the remittitur required by the lower court, is not excessive.
We find no reversible error in the record, and the judgment of the court below is therefore affirmed.'
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Churchill
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