Memphis St. R. v. Townes
Opinion of the Court
The company’s defense was that the motorman was acting in self-defense. The trial judge took the view that there was nothing to go to the jury to sustain this defense, and that upon the undisputed facts there should be a verdict for plaintiff. He left to the jury only the assessment of damages. We are entirely satisfied that there was no ground for any reasonable man to conclude that the motorman fired this shot in self-defense. Granting that, to sustain such a defense, it is not necessary that the motorman had any reasonable ground to apprehend danger from Townes, and that the question is whether the motorman did, in the excitement of the moment, really, think that he was in great danger, still the defense here as to this last shot, is not good, for there is no basis for a jury to find that he did in fact have any such idea. His utmost justification, when testifying as a witness, is, in effect, that he feared that Townes would come back and kill him, unless he could kill Townes before the latter got away. This is beyond any permissible theory of self-defense. It is more plainly erroneous than the theory that a killing was justified in making an arrest, under the circumstances there existing, which theory this court held unsustainable in Railway Ass’n v. Moseley, 211 Fed. 1, 127 C. C. A. 427. The motorman was not "in the presence of an uplifted knife.” Brown v. U. S., 256 U. S. 335, 41 Sup. Ct. 501, 66 L. Ed. -.
We are not inclined to consider or decide whether an indisputable liability could be supported in this case upon this theory. The declaration alleged that Townes was a passenger and that the injury was inflicted upon him while a passenger. The defendants pleaded that they were not guilty of the wrongs averred, and specially pleaded that the shots which injured plaintiff were fired in self-defense. Upon the trial defendant presented nine special requests to charge, eight of which presented the theory of self-defense, and one of which, No. 6, suggested the theory of an attempt to arrest plaintiff for the murder of the conductor. The court and defendant’s counsel agreed that this request, No. 6, was not within the issue made by the plea, and ought not to be granted. The claims that plaintiff had ceased to be a passenger, and that firing the shot which injured him was not within the scope of the motorman’s employment were never presented or considered at the trial. Neither is any such claim specified by any assignment of error.
These considerations lead to the conclusion that the judgment must be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MEMPHIS ST. R. CO. v. TOWNES
- Status
- Published