American Refrigerator Transit Company v. Stroope

88 S.W.2d 840, 191 Ark. 955, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 401
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 9, 1935
Docket4-4056
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 88 S.W.2d 840 (American Refrigerator Transit Company v. Stroope) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Refrigerator Transit Company v. Stroope, 88 S.W.2d 840, 191 Ark. 955, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 401 (Ark. 1935).

Opinion

Humphreys, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $30,000 rendered in favor of appellee against appellants in the circuit court of Clark County on account of an -injury received by him on July 29, 1934, through the alleged negligence of appellants in allowing a piece of ice to fall from a loading dock or platform, that struck him on the back while he was on the ground below inspecting and unchoking a drain pipe of a refrigerator car that was being.iced by employees oif the American Refrigerator Transit Company at Curd on.

Appellant Tate was served with summons in Clark County, where he resided, and the American Refrigerator Transit Company was served with, summons by delivering a copy, thereof to its designated agent for service in Pulaski County. The American Refrigerator Transit Company filed a motion to quash the service upon it, which was overruled by the court over its objection and exception, and its rights thereunder, if any, were property saved throughout the trial.

An answer was filed by appellants, denying the material allegations- of the complaint.

When the case was called for trial, appellants filed a motion to quash the panel of the petit jury, alleging that One of the jury commissioners which selected the petit jury had served in that capacity within four years and was ineligible under act 161 of the Acts of 1933 to again serve. It was also alleged in the motion that the three jury commissioners had selected, upon the panel, naming them, several persons who had served upon petit and grand juries within the past two years and were ineligible under said act to again serve. The court excused from the panel those persons who had served on grand and petit juries within two years previous and overruled the motion' of appellants to quash the entire panel, to which latter action of the court appellants objected and excepted.

Appellants first contend that the judgment should be reversed because the trial court erred in overruling the motion- to quash the entire panel of petit jurors. It is argued in support of this contention that one of the commissioners who had assisted in the selection of the panel had previously served in this capacity within four years prior thereto, and that, under the provisions of act 161 of the Acts of 1933 he was ineligible to serve as a jury commissioner within four years from the date of his previous service. This depends on whether the act relates to the service of a commissioner prior to its passage or whether to his service in that capacity after its passage. The language of the act is as follows:

“Prom and after the passage of this act,’ no citizen of this State shall be eligible to serve as a jury commissioner oftener than one term every four years. ’ ’

The general rule is that statutes should be construed as having prospective operation only, unless it is definitely expressed or clearly and necessarily implied in such statutes that they are to have retroactive effect. Fayetteville Building & Loan Association v. Bolin, 63 Ark. 576, 40 S. W. 710; Black v. Special School District No. 2, 116 Ark. 472, 173 S. W. 846-1104; Dulaney y. Continental Life Insurance Co., 185 Ark. 517, 47 S. W. (2d) 1082; Lacefield v. Taylor, 185 Ark. 648, 48 S. W. (2d) 832.

There is no language or clear and necessary impli,cation in act 161 of the Acts of 1933 supporting! the construction that the Legislature intended for it to operate retrospectively. The language used is clear and unambiguous that a citizen shall be disqualified from serving as a jury commissioner oftener than once every four years after the passage of the act. The undisputed evidence shows that the jury commissioner in question in the instant case never served in that capacity after the passage of the act until he assisted in the selection of this particular panel of petit jurors. The trial.court did not err in overruling appellants’ motion to quash the entire panel. ,

Appellants next contend for a reversal of the judgment because the trial court erred in giving appellee’s requested instructions Nos. 1 and 6, and in refusing to give appellants’ requested instructions Nos. 2 and 3.

The giving of instruction No. 6 was not m,ade ,a ground of the motion for a new trial, and the alleged error in giving same cannot be considered on this appeal. Appellants argue that it was error to give appellee’s requested instruction No. 1 and to refuse to give appellants’ requested instructions Nos. 2 and 3 ‘because no evidence was adduced to support a finding of negligence on the part of Raymond Tate, who was appellee’s co-employee and who was sued jointly with the American Refrigerator Transit Company, their employer, for negligently causing the injury inflicted upon appellee. The evidence adduced, stated in the- most favorable light to appellee, in substance, (adopting, in part, appellee’s statement of facts) is as follows:

The appellee, who' was in the employ of appellant American Refrigerator Transit Company on the night of the 29th of July, 1934, with a crew of seven other men, engaged in re-icing a refrigerator car at Gurdon, was injured. The car was being re-iced at a loading dock or platform at the junction of the Womble'Branch Line with the. main line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The loading dock was built for the purpose of re-icing cars, and was about 250 feet long from north to south and was about thirty feet wide. The railroad tracks ran on either side of the dock. The dock on the east side was about 17 -feet high, the platform of the dock being about even with the top of the refrigerator car standing on the track, making it convenient to put ice in the top of the car from the platform of the dock. In the roof of the car there were four holes to receive the ice, two at each end of the car. Over these holes there were lids that were opened when the car was to be re-iced. On the west side of the dock, the railroad tracks were built up so that the doors of the refrigerator cars carrying ice were even with the platform. The ice in these cars came in blocks weighing 300 pounds each. When this ice was removed to the platform, the 300-pound blocks were cut into three 100-pound blocks by the crew, to enable them to more easily put the ice into the refrigerator car. Between the top of the refrigerator car and the top of the platform there was a space about 1G inches in width. The method adopted to put the ice in the refrigerator cars was by using pike poles to push the ice across the platform and by giving it enough momentum to cause the ice to leap over the space between the platform and the car and go into the hole in the top of the car. The pike poles were of wood, four or five feet long, with a metal pike in the end of them, the end being inserted in the ice while pushing it. There are four drain pipes near the corners of the refrigerator car, and these pipes are used to drain the water out of the oar made by the melting ice, and frequently these pipes become stopped up or clogged, and it is then necessary to open them up. On the night of the injury there was only one car to be re-iced. This car was brought in on the Womble branch, and the dock crew, -while waiting for it to arrive, were engaged in taking the ice out of the cars and cutting the same into smaller blocks. When the car was seen approaching, Mr.

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88 S.W.2d 840, 191 Ark. 955, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-refrigerator-transit-company-v-stroope-ark-1935.