Arkansas Power & Light Co. v. Tolliver

27 S.W.2d 985, 181 Ark. 790, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 12, 1930
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 27 S.W.2d 985 (Arkansas Power & Light Co. v. Tolliver) 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
Arkansas Power & Light Co. v. Tolliver, 27 S.W.2d 985, 181 Ark. 790, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 323 (Ark. 1930).

Opinion

Butler, J.

The appellee, Pearl Tolliver, was injured in a collision between a Ford sedan, in which she was driving, and a street car operated by the appellant, near Thirteenth and Bice streets in the city of Little Bock on September 2, 1927. The street car was headed west, the automobile being in front of it. It is the contention of the appellee that she was driving on the track in front of the street car, and that it ran into' and struck the rear of her automobile, inflicting upon her personal injuries.. The appellant contends that the appellee’s sedan was parked in a place of safety on the side of the street, and, just as the street oar approached, she backed her automobile suddenly and without warning toward the track, thereby bringing about the collision, which could not have been averted -by the motorman.

The testimony in the case was in direct conflict. A group of workmen who were engaged in repairing the street testified that the collision occurred at about the noon hour, at which time they were on the curb near the scene -of the accident, taking their noon-day meal; that at that place the street on either side of the car track was being repaired and was so obstructed that it was necessary for those traveling along it to travel partly on the tracks of the appellant company. These witnesses observed the appellee driving in a westerly direction partly on the car track. She was proceeding at a moderate rate of speed when a street car approached from her rear and traveling” at a more rapid rate of speed than the appellee, rapidly lessening the distance between them, and, without any warning- being given, ran into the Ford sedan, violently knocking it from the street toward the curb and severely injuring the appel-lee. The motorman and a number of passengers on the street car, as well as other witnesses, testified that just, before the street car reached the point of the accident the appellee’s car was parked on the edge of the street, and that she suddenly and without warning backed her car on the track in front of the approaching street car, and as she did this the motorman sounded his signal and applied the brakes, but was unable to stop or check the street car in time to avoid striking appellee.

There were several witnesses, including- physicians, who testified as to the appellee’s injuries. The jury found the issues in favor of the appellee, and assessed her damages at $3,000. The court rendered a judgment in accordance with the verdict, from which the appellant has appealed.

The first ground of error assigned and argued in plaintiff’s brief is that instruction No. 1A given for the plaintiff was erroneous and prejudicial in that it incorrectly stated the law of discovered peril. The specific vice of the instruction urged upon our attention is that the instruction told the jury that if the motorman could have, discovered appellee’s peril in time to have stopped his car and avoided the injury to the appellee, had he used ordinary care with the means at his command, and did not do so, appellant was liable, and it is argued that the court should have limited the degree of care required of the defendant’s motorman to ordinary care in stopping the car after he actually discovered the plaintiff in a perilous position upon the track, and also that there was no testimony to show that the motorman failed to keep the lookout required by the exercise of ordinary care, and that therefore the instruction rvas abstract in this regard.

We do not think the instruction inherently wrong or prejudicial. Unlike railroads, a street railway company lias no exclusive riglit to occupy its own tracks, but lias only the preferential rights to that part actually being- used at any given point of time, and every one has the right to use the entire street, including the tracks of the street railway company, whenever reasonably necessary or convenient. Therefore, we think that the operator in charge of a street car is under the duty to keep a constant lookout to avoid injuring those who may chance to be in a dangerous position by reason of its operation, and, because of the fact that the street railway uses the streets in common with others, such duty would only be the exercise of ordinary care. The principle, as stated, is not in conflict with the case of Johnson v. Stewart, 62 Ark. 164, 34 S. W. 889, for the effect of that decision was merely to hold that the duty to keep a lookout did not abrogate the doctrine, of contributory negligence. Before the passage of our “lookout statute, ’ ’ it was not the duty of the railroad operatives to keep a constant lookout for persons upon the track for the reason that the railroads had the exclusive occupancy of their tracks, and had the right to assume that the way would be clear. This, however, has never been the rule as to street railways, for, as we have seen, they have not the right to the exclusive use of their tracks. Bain v. Fort Smith L. & T. Co., 116 Ark. 125, 172 S. W. 843 L. R. A. 1915D, 1021; Pankey v. Little Rock Ry. & Elec. Co., 117 Ark. 337, 174 S. W. 1170.

It is contended that incompetent testimony was admitted on the part of the appellee in permitting her to testify as to what she earned before and after the accident. The true test as to the measure of damages, as suggested by the appellant, is “what she was able to earn since the accident as compared with what she was able to earn before the accident,” but the testimony admitted was competent for the purpose of tending to establish that fact. Further objection was made to the testimony of the appellee to the effect that she had no other source of livelihood than that of cleaning and pressing. We have frequently held that where one had fitted himself for the prosecution of any profession or trade, and by reason of an injury was no longer able to follow such occupation, this might he considered, in measuring the damages sustained, as tending to show the loss of earning .power.

It is also contended that the verdict is excessive. This question we need not consider as the case must be reversed and remanded for a new trial for the reasons hereinafter stated.

In the complaint, after the allegation of the injury occasioned by the street car running into the automobile of the appellee, and after the allegations as to negligence, the specific results of the negligence charged were set out in the following language: “As a result of the negligence and carelessness of the defendant, its servants and employees, complained of herein, the plaintiff received severe, painful and permanent injuries to her person, and has suffered great, severe and excruciating bodily pain and mental anguish. The injuries complained of herein consisted of a fractured rib, a contusion on the back of head, sprained and strained muscles in hack and neck, and internal and outer injuries to body and limbs, which are permanent and have greatly impaired the health of plaintiff, and caused her continual and painful suffering to mind and body.” A number of witnesses testified in support of these allegations, in - eluding the appellee’s physician, after which Dr. E. F. Ponder was called as a witness, and, after qualifying as an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and nervous disorders, was permitted to testify over the objection of the appellant as to an examination made by him, and his conclusions based thereon regarding certain injuries to the appellee’s nervous system.

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Bluebook (online)
27 S.W.2d 985, 181 Ark. 790, 1930 Ark. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arkansas-power-light-co-v-tolliver-ark-1930.