Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. White
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. White
Opinion of the Court
Appellee sued the appellants, Texas & Pacific Railway Company and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, to recover damages for an alleged delay in transit and rough handling of a shipment of cattle from Terrell, Tex., to East St. Louis, Ill. The allegations of the petition, in substance, are: That on the 25th day of February, 1911, he entered into a contract with the agent of the defendant Texas & Pacific Railway Company, at Terrell, to ship five cars of cattle from Terrell to the National Stock Yards at East St. Louis, Ill.; said shipment to be transported over the Texas & Pacific Railway from Terrell to Texarkana, Tex., thence over the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway to destination. That the cattle were intended for a catch market, and the agent of the Texas & Pacific Railway .Company, at Terrell, was informed and knew the purposes for which *954 the cattle were being shipped, and that they were intended to reach the market of February 27, 1911. That the ordinary and usual running time from Terrell to East St. Louis was from 32 to 30 hours, and, had the shipment been handled with ordinary care and dispatch, they would have reached their destination on the night of February 26, 1911, and been ready for the market of the next day. That the cattle were negligently delayed in transit, and did not reach their destination until 5 o’clock in the afternoon of February 27, 1911. That on the 28th day of February, 1911, the market price of such cattle as plaintiff’s were had declined at least 20 cents per hundred pounds. That the cattle were negligently and roughly handled en route. ■ That the cattle had to remain in the pens at the National Stock Yards over night of February 27th, and during that night encountered a snowstorm. That, as a result of the acts of the defendants, plaintiff claimed that his cattle were damaged to the amount of $1,359.59. The appellant Texas & Pacific Railway Company answered by a general demurrer and general denial. The appellant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company denied under oath each of the material allegations of the plaintiff’s petition, except that portion of same alleging a contract with the agent of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, at Terrell, in relation to which it averred it had not sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief. It further averred affirmatively: That, at the time the shipment was tendered to it at Texarkana by the initial carrier, the shipment had already been aboard cars from Terrell to Texarkana some nine or ten hours, and that it was impossible for the Iron Mountain Railway Company to transport the shipment from Texarkana to East St. Louis and get the cattle to the stock pens within the greatest limit of time permitted by the laws of the United States to keep cattle continuously confined aboard cars without feed, water, and rest. That the plaintiff had signed a written agreement extending the time from 28 to 36 hours. That, in order to comply with the law, it was necessary to unload the cattle into the pens at Little Rock, Ark., which was done. That plaintiff’s shipment consisted of only five cars of cattle, which was less than a train load, and this defendant transported the shipment out of each division point on its line of railway on the first train, leaving such division point, and over each division of its line of railway the train carrying the plaintiff’s shipment moved within its schedule time. A jury trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff against both appellants for the sum of $500, and they appealed.
“The jury is instructed: That the defendant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company was not under any obligation to transport the cattle of plaintiff over its road in any particular time or in any season for any particular market. That the extent of the obligation and duty of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company in regard to the time of transportation was to transport the same over its railroad in a reasonable time under all of the circumstances and conditions, and if you find and believe from the evidence that, under all of the circumstances, the shipment was transported by that defendant in a reasonable time while the shipment was in its hands, then you will not find anything against the defendant on the plaintiff’s claim of delay.”
| There was no testimony, so far as the record discloses, tending to show that the cattle were roughly handled by the appellant Texas & Pacific Railway Company. Whatever rough handling there may have been occurred, according to the testimony contained in the record and the finding of the jury, while the shipment of cattle was in the hands of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. Under the special charge quoted, the jury was distinctly instructed, if the shipment was transported by the latter company in a reasonable time while the shipment was in its hands, not to find anything against it on plaintiff’s claim of delay. So that since the undisputed evidence showed that, if there was any rough handling of the cattle, the same occurred on the road Of the appellant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, and since the special charge told the jury, in effect, unless they found there was unreasonable delay in the transportation of the cattle by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, to find for that company on that issue, the jury was not authorized to assess I any damages against that company not oc *955 casioned by its acts or default, and hence no material error, if any at all, was committed by the court in submitting to the jury the question of joint liability of the two defendants.
“The court erred in the language used in its charge to the jury submitting the issue of rough handling in that that portion of the charge was a charge upon the weight of the evidence, unduly emphasized the slight evidence of rough handling, and was not supported by anything in the record.”
We think this assignment must be sustained. Upon the issue of rough handling of the cattle, the court charged the jury .that if they believed from the evidence that the train or trains in which the cattle were being conveyed between Terrell, Tex., and East St. Louis, Ill., was or were roughly handled, ramming or jamming the cars together, knocking the cattle down and against each other, thereby injuring them, and if they further found that thq manner in which the cattle were handled was negligent, and that the negligence (if any) in so handling them, or negligence (if any) in delaying them in transit (if they were so delayed), either.or both resulted in damage to such cattle, causing them to shrink in weight and lose in appearance, then to find for the plaintiff such damages (if any) as resulted to the cattle therefrom. The only testimony bearing upon that issue is that of the witness 6. Scott, introduced by the appellee. He testified on direct examination:
“I accompanied plaintiff’s cattle on the shipment in question here. We started from Terrell and had a very good run. We lost an hour at Hawkins, I believe, and ran very well to Tex-arkana, and then we commenced falling down clear on into St. Louis. We only had about six cars, I believe, from Terrell to Longview,' and they never stopped to switch with us or throw any cars against us and knock us around until we got upon the Iron Mountain. It seemed like we got a local train out of there. We stopped and switched more, and they shoved cars down on us, which knocked the cattle around and against the car and knocked the hair off of them a little bit. It seemed like the cattle were handled a little rougher after we left Argenta; seemed like they didn’t give us no run out of there. The train stopped every once in a while, and they were doing more work on it than they had been, picking up more cars and switching more, shoving cars down, and pushing them out they switched more. After the cattle got to St. Louis, I saw them that afternoon and the next morning early. The cattle looked pretty tough the next morning; they looked tired. There wasn’t any of them crippled. I could see that there was hair knocked off of the cattle in places on the hips."
Testifying to the condition of the cattle when they arrived at East St. Louis, ha said:
“There was no damage to the cattle to speak of; they were just laid out.”
On redirect examination he testified:
“When I testified on cross-examination that there was no damage to the cattle to speak of, I meant there were no legs broken, no dead ones; that is about the size of it. Of course, they were damaged from being out so long. That is where the damage was. There wasn’t any damage from broken legs or being dead, ribs shrunk, or nothing like that.”
The appellant’s witnesses testified, in substance, that the handling was no rougher than that necessarily incident to transportation of cattle on railroad trains. This court has heretofore held, and it is well settled by the authorities generally, that it is improper for the court to single out any one fact in a case and, by too prominently placing the same before the jury, unduly impress them with the idea of its importance. Railway Co. v. O’Conner, 78 S. W. 874. It is also error for the court to charge, as is contended by the appellant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, upon facts which are not in evidence. Both of these well-established rules have been violated, we believe, by that portion of the court’s charge assailed by the assignment of error under consideration. It will be observed that the charge' tells the jury that if the train or trains in which the cattle were being transported were roughly handled, by “ramming or jamming the oars together, knocking the cattle down and against each other, thereby injuring them,” etc. (italics ours), to find for the plaintiff such damages as resulted to the cattle therefrom. It is clear, we think, that the “phraseology used by the court in submitting this issue to the jury was overdrawn and calculated to give the issue a significance in the mind of the jury to which it was not entitled under the evidence.” There is no evidence that the cars, or the “train or *956 trains,” in which’ the cattle were being conveyed were “rammed or jammed together,” or that the cattle, or any of them, were knocked down or against each other by any such handling of the train or trains, or otherwise, as indicated in the charge. In such state of the evidence the use of the intense terms, “ramming,” or “jamming” the cars together, and the language “knocking the cattle down and against each other, thereby injuring them,” was improper and prejudicial to the appellant St. Louis, Iron- Mountain & Southern Railway Company and requires a reversal of the case as to it.
“This appellant agrees to the sufficiency of the statement of the nature and result of the suit by its codefendant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company and adopts the brief of its codefendant filed herein, as far as same may be applicable to the contentions of this appellant, and in addition thereto .suggests the following counter proposition,’-’ etc.
This purported brief does not contain a single assignment of error, nor does it point out any assignment of error mentioned by its codefendant which is applicable to its “contentions.” Furthermore, what its “contentions” are, aside from the counter proposition whiefc. it states, and which cannot be considered for the want of an assignment of error, are not stated. We are left, then, unaided to search the brief of the appellant St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company for some assignment of error presented by it that may be applicable to some supposed contention of appellant .Texas & Pacific Railway Company, and upon it reverse the case as to it. This we are not required to do, and would not be authorized to do so.
Affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part
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Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.