Chicago, R. I. & G. Ry. Co. v. Smith
Chicago, R. I. & G. Ry. Co. v. Smith
Opinion of the Court
Appellee sued appellant railway company to recover damages on account of alleged personal injuries, resulting from a fall from a bridge upon which -he was working as an employe of appellant. A trial before a jury resulted in a judgment for $10,-000 in favor of appellee, based upon a verdict answering certain special issues, which will not be set out here.
“The allegations in the sixteenth paragraph are wholly insufficient, in this: The charges that plaintiff’s entire physical, nervous, and-mental being was severely shocked and stunned are mere general conclusions, without the statement of facts, and do not show the kind, character, and extent of any such injuries.”
The fifteenth paragraph of the amended original petition alleges specifically and in. detail the injuries; to appellee’s feet, ankles, and legs, showing the results of the injuries, “whereby he was caused to and did suffer intense and excruciating pain of both body and mind, which suffering has continued with greater or less intensity to the present time, and will continue indefinitely in the future.”
The sixteenth paragraph is as follows:
“In addition to the injuries above shown, there was also caused to plaintiff’s entire physical, nervous, and mental being a severe shock and stunning, from'which he lost consciousness for some time, and afterwards suffered great pain and anguish in body, nerves, and mind.”
We do not assent to appellant’s contention that this allegation is a statement of a mere general conclusion. We think it is the statement of a condition — the result of the injuries specifically set out in the preceding paragraph — and is the statement of a fact. The kind, character, and extent of the injuries is further declared in the statement that his entire physical, nervous, and mental being was severely shocked and stunned, from, which he lost consciousness for some time, and afterwards suffered great pain and anguish in body, nerves, and mind. As said by the Supreme Court in Railway Co. v. Shafer, 54 Tex. 646:
“It is neither necessary nor proper to set forth the evidence on which the pleader relies to sustain the facts which constitute his cause of ac- • tion.”
The allegation is sufficiently specific and definite to notify appellant of the character of evidence which will be offered to sustain the facts alleged. The permanent inability of appellee to get about to work and earn money was amply declared by other allegations, and appellant is bound to take notice of the necessary and inevitable effects and results of conditions brought about by the negligence of its servants and employés. Railway Co. v. Curry, 64 Tex. 85; Railway Co. v. Callihan, 86 S. W. 929; Railway Co. v. Gready, 36 Tex. Civ. App. 536, 82 S. W. 1061.
“It would be strange if, in the trial of cases in courts, use could not be made of facts elicited by means of a process, the usefulness and accuracy of which has been so completed demonstrated as have been photographic views of the bones of the living body by means of the X-ray. When properly taken, as these views were shown to have been, it is a matter of such common knowledge that they accurately represent what they purport to show that even courts may take cognizance of the fact.”
“Q. Has there been any effect, from your condition as you understand it, upon your nerves or mind, thinking about your condition? A. As to whether or not the condition of my feet, as I have explained it, has any effect on the condition of my nervous system and mind, I will state it does affect my mind. The way it affects my mind is that I get awfully blue at times, when I see that I cannot do as I used to do, and get about as I would like to, and hold the positions that I would want to. As to whether- or not I have noticed any effect of those things on my nervous condition, I might state that I have been nervous since I have been Hurt, but don’t know whether that is affected or not. I would not say.”
The objections urged to this question and answer are that the witness was not shown to be competent, that the question involved speculation, and there were no pleadings to justify any proof of that character. • The answer made by the witness to the question eliminates the objection in so far as it attempted to elicit evidence as to the effect which his thinking about his condition had upon appellee’s nerves, and he may not, under the authorities, have been competent to testify upon that point; but it was certainly competent testimony when he stated that thinking about his condition caused him to feel blue. He, above all others, was best qualified to state this fact. A., T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Click, 32 S. W. 226. There was no element of speculation involved in his answer. We think the pleadings were sufficient to admit the proof. He alleged intense suffering and pain of both body and mind, and that such pain and suffering would continue to the end of his life; that it was a shock to his physical, nervous, and mental being, resulting in a loss of consciousness, which he suffered in body, nerves, and mind; and that said injuries were permanent. He further alleges that it almost destroyed his earning capacity; that up'to the time of the injury he was a stout, robust, healthy young man, capable of performing any kind of manual labor and severe toil; and that this condition had been practically destroyed by the injury. Under this assignment appellant insists that, even if plaintiff is correct in his statement that his attacks of “blues” and his occasional morbid mental conditions are due to the injury to his feet, still such effects of an injury cannot form the basis of a recovery, or enter into the estimate of the damages according to the rule which prevails in the United States courts and which necessarily controls this case.
“The second assignment complains of the court permitting the plaintiff to testify on the issue of mental anguish as follows: ‘There are times when I am thinking of what I am now and what I have been. The prospects are so heavy for *617 me that I can hardly bear the weight. I have been a very active man in roy day, and when I think of what I have been, a powerful man, and when I think that I have got to be laid up the balance of my life, the load is a little heavy for me.’ * * *’ iphe objection to this evidence, as stated in appellant’s brief, was as follows: ‘Defendant objected to the question, and to any evidence of mental suffering from contemplating his crippled condition, and requested the court to restrict the testimony to mental anguish growing out of physical injury to plaintiff, and not contemplating liis crippled condition, because such evidence would be immaterial, irrelevant, and too remote.’ This assignment complained of the court’s refusal to give a special charge in this language: ‘If you find in favor of the plaintiff, you will not allow him any amount as compensation for any mental anguish or suffering you may believe he has suffered from brooding over or contemplating his maimed or injured condition, and regretting the difference, if any, between his present * * * condition and what it was before he was injured.’ Only one proposition is submitted under these two assignments, and that is: ‘Mental suffering, which an injured person experiences from brooding over and regretting his crippled condition, is too remote, and not a proper subject for damages in cases of this kind.’ We think the court did not err in admitting the evidence, nor in refusing to give the special charge asked, since mental anguish or suffering is a proper subject for damages in cases where one in good health and strength, sound in mind and members, by reason of the wrongful act of another is reduced to the state of a physical wreck, maimed and crippled for life, broken in body and spirit; and since the jury may presume mental anguish in the absence of affirmative evidence thereof, in cases where such would be the natural consequence of such injury, we can see no good reason, since parties to the suit may testify, why they may not relate their mental anguish as well as their physical suffering. We understand that this mental suffering may be, in part at least, the result of comparing their present wretched, dependent condition and hopeless future with the bright, happy, and independent life of which they wore deprived by the injury, as well as the contemplation of the fact that they must suffer from the effects of such injuries during the balance of their lives. * * * We are unable to see why the mental sufferings of this man, in contemplating his changed condition from a bright, happy life to a living death, should not form one of the natural results of such an injury and a proper subject of evidence and of damages.”
In the case of T. & P. Ry. Co. v. Curry, 64 Tex. 88, the Supreme Court said:
“The law infers, when such injuries to the person are shown to have existed as are alleged and proved in this case, that physical pain resulted therefrom; for by common observation we know that, in the ordinary operation of natural laws, pain is a necessary result of such injuries, unless the condition of the injured person be abnormal, which will not be presumed. This is equally true as to mental suffering; for it is contrary to common experience and the laws of man’s existence and nature that any sane, healthy, and robust person by physical injuries may be made a cripple for life in a matter affecting his health, comfort, or capacity, without mental pain resulting from the changed condition. No proof is required to be made of those things which every person is presumed to know, and, as it is not required that proof be made of a fact necessarily resulting from facts proved, then it is not necessary to allege the resulting fact, for it is understood to be averred by the averment of the facts from which it necessarily results.”
We think appellee’s evidence brings the case within the rule announced in McDermott v. Severe, 202 U. S. 600, 26 Sup. Ct. 709, 50 L. Ed. 1162, in which objection was made upon appeal to a charge set out in the opinion. The court said:
“The jury are to consider mental suffering, past and future, found to be the necessary consequence of the loss of his leg. Where such mental suffering is a direct and necessary consequence of the physical injury, we think the jury may consider it. It is not unlikely that the court might have given more ample instructions in this respect, had it been requested so to do; but what was said Jimited the compensation to the direct consequences of the physical injury. * * * That there might be more or less continuous mental suffering directly * , * * , from a maiming of the plaintiff’s person in an injury of this character was probable, and where the jury was limited to that which resulted, from the injury we think there can be no valid objection to or just ground of complaint.” Railway Co. v. Barron, 5 Wall. 90, 18 L. Ed. 591; 5 Sutherland on Damages (4th Ed.) § 1331.
The fourth assignment insists that the court erred in permitting Dr. R. D. Gist to> testify in behalf of the plaintiff as to the percentage of impaired earning capacity of plaintiff by reason of his injured condition, and the objection is urged that the witness should not have been permitted to give his opinion, when his own testimony shows that he was. not making a real estimate, but was merely-guessing. The record does not sustain the-statement that the witness’ own testimony shows that he,was not making a real estimate, and was only guessing.
Under the fifth assignment appellant contends that the court erred in not confining the jury, by special issue No. 8, to the negligence pleaded and proven, and that said special issue, when considered with the instruction given in connection therewith, is confusing and misleading. The eighth special issue, in referring to negligence, uses this language:
“And you so find under the issues hereinbe-fore submitted for your determination.”
Special issue No. 4, in dealing with the matter of negligence, uses this language:
“The way and manner and under the circumstances alleged in plaintiff’s petition.”
In special issues 5 and 6, the court submitted the question of appellee’s negligence as alleged in appellant’s answer, to both of which the jury answered “No.” When the-charge accompanying special issue No. 8 is considered in connection with the other special issues submitted, we think no error has been committed, and that the jury, in their deliberations, were necessarily confined to the-negligence pleaded and proven.
*618
The failure of the court to submit special charge No. 3, for appellant, is the basis of the eighth assignment. The substance of this charge was submitted to the jury in special issues Nos. 5 and 6 of the court’s general charge. Special issue No. 3 is objectionable, because it assumes that the stringer was landed when appellee endeavored to step on it.
“By the expression ‘ordinarily incident’ to plaintiff’s employment is meant danger, if any, commonly and usually pertaining to and incident to the kind and character of plaintiff’s employment, and which a reasonably prudent person might anticipate might occur in such employment. Danger caused by an act of negligence, if any, on the part of the defendant or its employes, would not be danger ordinarily incident to plaintiff’s employment, unless such act of negligence, if any, had theretofore been habitual, and the plaintiff knew of it, or must necessarily have learned of it in the ordinary discharge of his own duty before he was injured, and should have anticipated its probable occurrence at the time he was injured, in which case danger caused by such negligence, if any, would be ordinarily incident to plaintiffs employment.”
We think the meaning of the term “ordinarily incident,” as defined by the court, is substantially correct. Freeman v. Fuller, 60 Tex. Civ. App. 242, 127 S. W. 1196. Paragraphs (e) and (f) of the general charge are as follows:
“(e) If there was danger to plaintiff’s safety in connection with the movement of the east end of the stringer by defendant’s foreman, did plaintiff, before the injury, and in time to avoid the same, know and appreciate the danger, if any there was, in connection therewith?
“(f) If there was any danger to plaintiff’s safety in connection with the movement of the stringer by defendant’s foreman, must plaintiff, in the ordinary discharge of his own duty, have necessarily learned and appreciated the danger, if any there was, in connection therewith, before and in time to have avoided injury?”
The definition as given by the court, when considered by the jury in connection with the two issues copied above, leaves no ground for supposing that the jury could have been misinformed. Appellee insists that the charge in this particular is more favorable to him than otherwise. In this contention we believe he is correct, since the evidence did not show that the risk was one ordinarily incident to the employment, but that he was required by the foreman to step on the west end of the stringer, which it was alleged was suddenly and unexpectedly moved by the foreman, and which caused him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
What is here said also disposes of the tenth assignment.
The eleventh, twelfth) thirteenth, and fourteenth assignments attack the verdict and finding of the jury as contrary to, and not supported by, the evidence. These 'assignments are overruled.
“Did the plaintiff, at the time, place, in the manner, and under the circumstances alleged in paragraph 6 of defendant’s answer, attempt to step upon the stringer, lose his balance, and fall to the ground?”
This was answered in the negative. By special issue No. 6 -the jury was asked:
“If tbe plaintiff, at the time, place, in the manner, and under the circumstances alleged in paragraph 6 of defendant’s answer, did attempt to step upon the stringer, lose his balance, and fall to the ground: (a) Was the same negligence of plaintiff? (b) Was the same the proximate cause of the injuries to plaintiff or any of them, alleged in plaintiffs petition?”
Both of these questions were answered affirmatively; after having answered special issue No. 5 in the negative, it was unnecessary for the jury to answer special issue No. 6, and the affirmative answer returnea to this issue cannot be construed as a find *619 ing that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence, and that his negligence was the proximate cause of his injury, since the answer to special issue No. 5 precludes any such assumption ; nor is there any conflict shown by the answer of the jury'to special issue No. 7.
The record presents no reversible error, and the judgment is affirmed.
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