Southern Traction Co. v. Ellis
Southern Traction Co. v. Ellis
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is prosecuted by appellant from a judgment in favor of ap-pellee for damages on account of injuries alleged to have been sustained by appellee’s wife while a passenger on one of appellant’s interurban cars running between Dallas and Waco, Tex. The undisputed proof shows that a head-on collision occurred between two cars on appellant’s road; that appellee’s wife was a passenger on one of the cars, and as a result of the collision sustained serious injuries.
In the charge to the jury the trial court charged properly upon the burden of proof, etc., and gave the following instructions, which are complained of under several assignments in appellant’s brief:
“(2) Bearing the above definition in mind, you will answer tbe following special issue: Special Issue No. 1. What amount, if any, if paid now will be a fair and just compensation to plaintiff for the injuries, if any, sustained by his wife as the proximate result of the collision in question?
“(3) In this connection, you are instructed that you may take into consideration as elements of damage the nature and character of the injuries, if any, sustained by plaintiff’s wife, whether permanent or otherwise; physical and mental pain, if any, suffered or that will probably be suffered by plaintiff’s said wife in tbe future; such reasonable and necessary amount or amounts, if
*984 any, as you may believe from the evidence to have been incurred by plaintiff for services of physicians, dentists, and for medicines, as the proximate, result of such injuries, if any.”
The first, second, third, and sixth assignments of error complain of the refusal of the trial court to give certain requested instructions directing the jury not to consider certain allegations in plaintiff’s petition in passing upon special issue No. 1, which was the only question submitted by the court to the jury. The contention is that there was no evidence tending to prove the injuries alleged in the specified paragraphs of appellee’s petition.
We cannot sanction that contention, because, in our opinion, there was testimony tending to support the averments referred to.
The fourth and fifth assignments in appellant’s brief were abandoned in oral argument.
That instruction was properly refused, as the rule of law sought to be covered by it does not require that the proof shall show that a reasonably prudent person would have anticipated the specific injuries alleg'ed to have resulted from the wrong complained of. The rule is that the wrongdoer is responsible when the injuries complained of are the natural and probable result of the wrong, although such wrongdoer could not foresee that those particular injuries would result, if he could have foreseen that any personal injury might result.
The requested instruction, the refusal of which .is complained of in the ninth assignment, was properly refused, because it was ambiguous, confusing, and argumentative. In fact, the language there used, while it might have found a proper place in argument by counsel to the jury, should not have been incorporated in the charge of the court.
The tenth assignment complains of the third paragraph of the court’s charge as copied above. The only proposition submitted under that assignment asserts that the court should determine the issues that are made by the pleadings and evidence and distinctly present them to the jury, and instruct that body to consider only such issues. The correctness of that proposition may be conceded, but we hold that the court’s charge is in substantial compliance therewith. At any rate, appellant has not pointed out any positive or affirmative error in the court’s charge, nor complained of the-refusal of the court to give requested instructions supplying material omissions.
“Q. Dr. Sehenck, the trouble you found with the sight (meaning the eyesight of plaintiff’s wife), could you determine from your examination how long that condition had prevailed? A. X would presume that that condition had been present for an indefinite period óf time, several years at least, because refractory air is due to the abnormal shape of the eyeball. Q. Is there any scientific way by which you can determine just the extent of time that that vision has been affected? A. I think not. Q. You cannot tell (you) that, can you? A. Unless it is the result of an injury.”
On redirect examination, he said:
“Of course, defective vision might be due to an injury. I do not know whether the defect in the vision of Mrs. Ellis dated from the time of the accident or not. I did find a defective vision.”
On recross-examinatihn, he testified:
“I made no statement with reference to injury to the eyes. An injury to the eye has never manifested itself. There was a defect in vision. I have referred to the defect of vision being present. I did say that I did not know when that manifested itself. I do not know whether it dated from the time of the accident, or some other time.”
Appellant objected to the testimony of Dr. Sehenck as elicited by the cross-examination, upon the ground that there was no pleading that raised the issue of injury to Mrs. Ellis’s eyesight, and therefore any evidence with reference to her eyesight was immaterial, irrelevant, and prejudicial; which objection the court overruled.
As shown by the foregoing statement, appellant and not appellee introduced the testimony showing the defective eyesight, and therefore appellant had no right to complain because the court permitted appellee to cross-examine the witness upon that subject. If it had been shown that counsel for appellee in argument to the jury asked for any compensation for injury to Mrs. Ellis’s eye, or if complaint was made of the refusal of the court to give a requested instruction directing the jury not to allow such compensation, a different question would be presented.
The thirteenth assignment is predicated upon certain language used by appellee’s counsel in the closing argument to the jury. If the language referred to impinges upon the rules invoked (which, however, we do not hold), it was not such a flagrant violation as entitles appellant to have the case reversed.
No reversible error has been pointed out, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.