Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Bostick
Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Bostick
Opinion of the Court
Appellee sued Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company and Walker D. Hines, Director General of Railroads, to recover damages for injury to cattle shipped from Fort Worth to Lam-pasas, by reason of the alleged negligence of defendants. Such negligence is alleged to have consisted in rough handling and unreasonable delay of the shipment. John Barton Payne was made party defendant, as the successor of Walker D. Hines. The case was submitted to a jury upon the following special issues:
“No. 1. Do you find from the evidence that the defendant railway company was negligent in the time taken in transporting the cattle of the plaintiff from Fort Worth, Texas, to Lam-pasas, Texas?”
To which the jury answered: “Yes.”
“No. 2. Was said railway company, or its ' agents or employés, negligent in handling the train on which said cattle were shipped?”
To which the jury answered: “Yes.”
“No. 3. Were the cattle composing said shipment damaged by such negligence, if any, either by delay in the time of shipment, or in the manner of handling, or both, as alleged by plaintiff ?”
To which the jury answered: “Yes.”
“No. 4. What amount of money will compen *113 sate the plaintiff for the damage to his cattle, if any?”
To which the jury answered: “$691.50.”
“No. 5. Was any part of the damages, if any, sustained by plaintiff’s stock, proximately due to the inherent vice ■ of such stock, .and their propensities to lay down in the cars and be trampled by other stock in the cars, and to injure themselves?”
To which the jury answered: “No.”
Upon the findings of the jury, the court rendered judgment against defendants, jointly and severally, for the sum of $691.50.
There is no assignment of error to the effect that the verdict and judgment are wholly unsupported by the evidence, but appellant Payne insists that such is the state of the record, and that this is fundamental error appearing from the face of the record, and should be considered without an assignment. He insists: (1) That it appears from the statement of facts that there was no evidence that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company ever received the cattle; (2) if so, there was no evidence as to the condition .of such cattle when so received; and (3) that there is no evidence showing unreasonable delay.
“A judge in trying a case must not only exercise his own logical faculties in construing and applying evidence, but he must draw on his own sources of knowledge for such information as is common to all intelligent persons in the same community.”
In support of this proposition, the court cites the following cases: Trenier v. Stewart, 55 Ala. 458; Gibson v. Stevens, 8 How. 399, 12 L. Ed. 1123; Vanderwerker v. People, 5 Wend. (N. Y.) 530; Pearce v. Langfit, 101 Pa. 507, 47 Am. Rep. 737; Steinmetz v. Turnpike Co., 57 Ind. 457; Tewksbury v. Schulenberg, 41 Wis. 584; Walker v. Allen, 72 Ala.456; Oppenheim v. Wolf, 3 Sandf. Ch. (N. Y.). 571; Neaderhouser v. State, 28 Ind. 257.
In referring to the statement in 16 Cyclopedia, supra, Mr. Justice Harper, in Ex parte Botts, 69 Tex. Cr. R. 161, 154 S. W. 221, 44 L. R. A. (N. S.) 629, says that authorities in support of this proposition are cited in that work from Alabama, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and the United States Supreme Court. In Gaddy v. Smith, 116 S. W. 164, this court applied this principle as to location of the city of Waco, citing Carson v. Dalton, 59 Tex. 502; Solyer v. Romanet, 52 Tex. 567.
It is true that Mr. Justice Brown, speaking for the court in Telegraph Co. v. Smith, 88 Tex. 13, 30 S. W. 550, said:
“The distance between Dallas and Waxaha-ohie, the means of travel, and the time it would *114 require to make the trip, were not matters of such common knowledge that the jury could determine the issue without evidence.”
We take it that the words “means of travel” did not refer to the absence of testimony as to whether or not a railroad ran from Dallas to Waxahaehie. The findings of fact by the Court of Civil Appeals show that there was such a road, operating both passenger and freight trains. But there was no evidence as to the schedule of such trains, the distance between the póints, or the usual time of making the trip. The case was reversed upon the ground that the evidence .as to the contract sued on was variant from that alleged in the petition. What Judge Brown said upon the point above referred to was very proper, as informing the trial court what evidence would be necessary to ■sustain a judgment upon another trial.
In Railway Co. v.- State, supra, our Supreme Court held that it would take judicial cognizance of the fact that certain railroads in this state were parallel lines. After quoting from Wharton on Evidence, as herein-above set out, and citing the cases herein-above cited, Mr. Justice Gaines, speaking for the court, said:
“The authorities cited show that we must take notice of the geography of the state, and at least of its navigable streams. It is a matter of history that important lines of railroad, once established, have remained as fixed and as permanent in their course as the rivers themselves. They supersede, in the main, all other modes of travel between the points which they touch, and become as well, if not better, known than any other geographical feature of the country. Their locality-becomes ‘notorious and indisputable.’ For instance, can we doubt that the Houston & Texas Central road runs from Houston to Dallas, and that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Eé touches with its lines the same points?”
We do not think that the decision in Telegraph Co. v. Smith, supra, was intended to overrule or limit the doctrine as to judicial knowledge announced in Railway Co. v. State, supra. In Miller v. Railway Co., 83 Tex. 520, 18 S. W. 954, it was said:
“The court would take notice of the locality -of defendant’s line of railways, for it is a physical and geographical fact of undisputed notoriety.”
In Ex parte Botts, supra, the court said:
“This court, soon after its organization, adopted the general rule laid down by Mr. Greenleaf: ‘Courts will generally take notice of whatever ought to be generally known within the limits of their jurisdiction.’ Moore v. State, 7 Tex. App. 20. And this has always been the rule in this court and the Supreme ■Court.”
Upon authority of Telegraph Co. v. Smith, supra, we sustain appellants’ fourth assignment of -error, which, in effect, is that the judgment should be set aside because there was no evidence as to the matters above referred to.
For the reasons stated in the next preceding paragraph of this opinion, this case is reversed.and remanded for a new trial herein.
Reversed and remanded.
other eases see same topic and KEY-N.UMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GULF, C. & S. F. RY. CO. Et Al. v. BOSTICK
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published