Adams v. Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company

405 S.W.2d 838, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3057
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 7, 1966
Docket14807
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 405 S.W.2d 838 (Adams v. Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company, 405 S.W.2d 838, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3057 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

WERLEIN, Justice.

This suit was brought by appellant under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by him in a collision during switching operations on July 5, 1964. The case was tried by the court without a jury, and the court found that the defendant, Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Company, was liable to appellant in the sum of $1500.00 damages.

Appellant first complains that the trial court failed to make findings of fact as to whether appellant sustained a neck injury in the collision, and also whether a prior neck injury sustained by appellant in 1961 was aggravated by the collision which occurred on March 5, 1964. The court, on request of appellant to make findings of fact and conclusions of law, incorporated in its judgment both findings of fact and conclusions, but did not make any finding with respect to requests for findings that appellant did not sustain a neck injury and that appellant’s neck injury received in 1961 was not aggravated by the trauma sustained on the occasion in question. The judgment of the court containing findings of fact and conclusions of law was entered on September 27, 1965. Appellant did not request additional findings of fact or conclusions until October 6, 1965, which was more than five days from the date of the court’s original findings of fact and conclusions of law contained in the court’s judgment.

It is our view that appellant’s request for additional findings of fact was filed too late under Rule 298, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Furthermore, such request for additional findings did not call for findings of ultimate fact but instead called for findings of purely evidential matters. For such reason there was no error on the part of the court in failing to make such additional findings. The omission of such findings has not and will not in any way prevent appellant from making a proper presentation of his case in this Court since the statement of facts includes all of the evidence adduced at the trial.

Appellant complains that the trial court’s finding of only $1500.00 damages is so inadequate and so against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly wrong and unjust. This assignment requires a careful consideration and review of all the evidence adduced at the trial.

The evidence shows that appellant, a switchman in the employ of appellee, sustained an injury when a rough or hard coupling was made in switching operations by appellee’s engineer, Mr. Goley. Appellant, at the time of such coupling, was standing in the cab of the engine and was thrown against the generator housing of the engine or other hard substance, the left side of his chest and left arm striking the same with considerable force, throwing him to his knees, and causing some swelling and a knot on his left forearm and pain in his left chest. No bones were broken, and, according to appellant, his left arm and chest were completely healed and stopped hurting him probably within seven weeks after the accident.

Appellant’s main contention is that he suffered a neck injury on the occasion in question and also an aggravation of a preexisting neck condition. The evidence shows that in March, 1961 appellant, while riding on the side of one of appellee’s railroad cars, sustained a severe injury of his cervical spine when he was struck on the head by a door of a car on a parallel track, and that as a result of such injury he was paid $16,000.00 by appellee in settlement of his suit for damages. Appellant testified that as a result of the 1961 injury he lost fourteen months from work. He then passed a physical examination given by *840 appellee’s doctor, Dr. Moody, and returned to work. He completely recovered from such injury and resumed normal activities including the playing of golf.

With respect to the accident of July 5, 1964, appellant testified that after the accident and after they went down the main line of the railroad track to a siding, his neck pain started; he drove his own car home, and then his wife drove him to the hospital where he saw Dr. Moody, who examined him and gave him a pill and told him to go home and rest and to come to his office the next morning; a day or two later he was admitted to the hospital where he remained until July 10; Dr. Moody saw him three times and Dr. Brodsky examined him one time; Dr. Moody ordered cervical traction; some two weeks after he left the hospital he saw Dr. McGehee, who had been his doctor at the time of the 1961 injury; Dr. McGehee placed him in a Thomas collar and gave him neck therapy; he saw Dr. McGehee about ten times and he was given some thirty therapy treatments at the doctor’s office; he had not been able to work but had done so; that Dr. MeGehee had “stipulated” that he could not return to railroad work.

Appellant further testified that after such injury he first worked as a member of the Sheriff’s Auxiliary; that he had worked as a private store detective and as a railroad detective, and had represented on an application to work for the Port Terminal Railroad Association dated January 30, 1965 that he had no physical defects visible or invisible; that he had worked a month and a half for Texas Gulf Tank Company, doing lay-out and fitting work, but that the work was too heavy for him and he quit although no one asked him to do so; that he had worked for Belmas Corporation doing the same kind of work; that to obtain his job with Texas Gulf Tank Company he had to take a physical examination; that such work required physical activity; and that at the time of the trial he was working' for Robertson Manufacturing Co. doing lay-out work and had been so working for some two months, missing a few days; and that he was paid $2.85 an hour, whereas during the year 1963 when working for appellee his gross earnings were approximately $5,600.00. Appellant also testified that his neck pained him all the time, some times worse than other times, and that he could not play golf because swinging golf clubs hurt him.

Dr. McGehee, whose qualifications were admitted, testified in substance that after appellant’s injury in March, 1961, he had recovered and had returned to work in May, 1962; that appellant came to him in March, 1963 complaining of pain in his neck but the complaint was wholly subjective; that he did not see appellant from March, 1963 to July 14, 1964, when he diagnosed appellant’s condition after the 1964 injury as “traumatic injury to the left chest, cervical spine and left forearm”; that he prescribed a Thomas collar for neck support and recommended a muscle relaxer and pain medication; that when he first saw appellant he had a 75% restriction of motion in his neck which was reduced to 50% by August 28, 1964, and reduced to 25% to 30% some thirteen months after the 1964 injury. He further testified that on August 28, 1964, he recommended that appellant gradually discontinue using the Thomas collar and that he return to light work; that he saw appellant again on September 23, and appellant still had pain in the cervical back, particularly on moving his head from side to side, and that he recommended continuation of therapy; that he re-examined appellant’s cervical spine in January of 1965, and found that he had flattening of the Lordotic Curve which was not extremely severe; that when he x-rayed Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. v. Benben
601 S.W.2d 418 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Tex-Craft Builders, Inc. v. Allied Constructors of Houston, Inc.
465 S.W.2d 786 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Houser v. Sunshine Laundries & Dry Cleaning Corp.
438 S.W.2d 117 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1969)
Ruffo v. Wright
425 S.W.2d 663 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Strickland Transportation Co. v. International Aerial Mapping Co.
423 S.W.2d 676 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Trinity Universal Insurance Company v. Farley
408 S.W.2d 776 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)
Owens v. Acme Oil Company
408 S.W.2d 947 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)
Daugherty v. McDonald
407 S.W.2d 954 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
405 S.W.2d 838, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-houston-belt-terminal-railway-company-texapp-1966.