Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railway Co. v. Johnson
Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railway Co. v. Johnson
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This case is presented upon a certificate from the Court of Civil Appeals for the Second District. Its nature may be gathered from the opinion of Mr. Justice Stephens, writing for the majority of the Court of Civil Appeals, and the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Speer, both of which will be inserted by the reporter.
The dissent arose upon a charge given and a special charge refused by the trial court, which are as follows:
"3. If you find from the evidence that Hugh Johnson approached the crossing or road, on or near Pine Street, crossing defendant’s
Special charge refused: “You are instructed that under the evidence in the ease, you can not find for the plaintiffs on the ground that the defendant blocked the crossing described in the evidence as just west of the depot, or the paths mentioned in the evidence, even though you may believe that the said paths and crossings were blocked for more than five minutes or any length of time and even though you may believe that the defendant was negligent in blocking the same.”
The following questions are asked with reference to these charges: ' “First. Did or not the trial court err in the third paragraph of his charge to the jury by making the conduct of appellant in obstructing the street with its cars in violation of the city ordinance of the city of Dalhart, Dallam County, Texas, unduly prominent ?
“Second. Did or not the trial court err in refusing the third special instruction requested by appellant to the effect that its negligence in blocking the streets would not warrant a recovery?
“Third. Was or not the blocking of the street of appellant
We answer the first and second questions in the negative, the reasons being satisfactorily given in the opinion of Mr. Justice Speer. The third question calls for a conclusion upon a mixed question of law and fact to be drawn from the entire record, which is not before us, and, therefore, it would probably be improper and certainly unnecessary for us to answer it further than is done in answering the first and second questions. We gather enough from the two opinions to enable us to say that the trial court did not err in submitting the question of proximate cause to the jury.
The other question is submitted upon the charge given by the trial court instead of special instructions requested by the defendant. It is copied in the majority opinion from which the nature of the objection made to it may be seen. The charge thus given should be treated as any other instruction given by the court. It states a correct rule of law for the benefit of the defendant and contains no affirmative error. If the defendant desired a more distinct separation of the two phases of contributory negligence relied on, correct special instructions should have been requested. (Yellow Pine Oil Co. v. Noble, 100 Texas, 358; Parks v. San Antonio Traction Co., 100 Texas, 222.) The question certified does not call upon us to answer whether or not the requested instructions in lieu of which that iri question was given were improperly refused. We answer that there was no error in the instructions given.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railway Company v. Hugh Johnson
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published