Biggers v. Continental Bus System, Inc.

298 S.W.2d 79, 157 Tex. 367, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 654
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1956
DocketA-5280
StatusPublished
Cited by103 cases

This text of 298 S.W.2d 79 (Biggers v. Continental Bus System, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Biggers v. Continental Bus System, Inc., 298 S.W.2d 79, 157 Tex. 367, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 654 (Tex. 1956).

Opinions

GRIFFIN, Justice.

This is a suit by Mrs. Patricia Biggers and her children against the Continental Bus System, Inc. for damages resulting from a collision between a Ford car driven by Enoch A. Biggers, Jr., husband and father of petitioners, and a passenger bus belonging to Continental Bus System driven by Jack P. Lanham, an employee of the Bus Company. The collision took place on Highway 75 about eight miles north of Huntsville, Texas, about 8:52 a. m. on December 20, 1951. Enoch A. Biggers, Jr. was instantly killed in the collision.

The bus belonging to the Bus Company was proceeding generally in a northerly direction from Houston to Madisonville, Texas, upon Highway 75, and was on its own proper right side of the highway, well to the right of the center stripe of such highway. The collision between the vehicles took place a few hundred feet north of a bridge across Nelson Creek on said highway. The highway was 24 feet wide at the [81]*81point of the collision and the bridge ■ was 28 feet wide. As the bus was being driven north along the highway, three automobiles were coming south down the highway. The first was a Hudson car; approximately 100 or more feet behind the Hudson was the Ford car driven by Enoch A. Biggers, Jr., and a short distance behind the Ford was a Chevrolet automobile driven by Miss Betty Jo Epps accompanied by Mrs. Ernest De Jernett. It had been raining the night before and the paved portion of the highway was wet, but there is no evidence that the highway was slick. As the Hudson approached the bridge across the highway the driver of the Hudson slowed down to observe the creek to ascertain if it was too muddy for fishing. The shoulders on both sides of the highway were wet and muddy. There is evidence that the Hudson had been driven along at 40 to 45 miles per hour and slowed to 10 to 15 miles per hour. The Ford car was being driven faster than the Hudson, so when the Hudson slowed down the driver of the Ford put on his brakes to avoid a collision with the Hudson. Mrs. Gross (then Miss Epps, who by the time of the trial had married Wm. Gross) saw the brake light of the Ford go on, and she put on her brakes to avoid colliding with the Ford. Her brakes “locked”, i. e., the brakes locked her wheels and she slid into the Ford striking it a little to the right of the center of the rear bumper. This resulted in the Ford car being propelled diagonally eastward across the highway and in front of the bus and into the bus’ righthand side of the highway. The collision resulted between the bus and the Ford and all three occupants of the Ford were killed instantly.

Upon a trial before a jury the jury answered 79 special issues favorable to the plaintiffs and judgment was rendered for plaintiffs against the Bus Company and Mrs. Gross and husband in the sum of $101,800. The jury found the driver- of the bus guilty of negligence in failing to keep a proper lookout; in failing to apply his brakes; and in driving at an excessive rate of speed; in driving at a speed in excess of 55 m. p. h., and found each act of negligence to be a proximate cause of the collision. The jury found Mrs. Gross guilty of certain negligent acts which were also a proximate cause of the collision. Plaintiffs plead “discovered peril” as a ground of recovery and the trial court by appropriate issues submitted this ground of liability. The jury, in answering these issues, found that the discovery by the bus driver of the perilous position of the deceased did not occur at such time that the driver could have avoided the collision. Therefore, any liability on the part of the Bus Company by virtue of the doctrine of discovered peril is not in the case as presented to us. All parties are agreed that no recovery can be had under that doctrine.

Upon appeal the Court of Civil Appeals reversed and rendered the judgment against the Bus Company upon the ground that, as a matter of law, the negligent acts of the bus driver (assuming that he was negligent) were not a proximate cause of the collision. The judgment of the trial court was otherwise affirmed. 277 S.W.2d 228. A more detailed statement of facts will be found in the Court of Civil Appeals’ decision.

All parties agree that plaintiff must recover, if at all, under the findings of the jury as to primary negligence and proximate cause. The plaintiffs, having recovered a judgment in the trial court on favorable jury findings, and this judgment having been rendered against plaintiffs on “no evidence”, it becomes the duty of this Court “to examine and consider all of the evidence bearing on the controlling issues, and having done so to decide whether there is evidence .of. probative value to support the answers made by the jury to the issues.” Hall v. Medical Bldg. of Houston, Texas, 1952, 151 Tex. 425, 251 S.W.2d 497, 498.

It is also well settled that there can be more than one proximate cause of a collision, and that all tho-se whose negligence is a proximate cause will be liable, in damages for the result's of the collision. [82]*82Walsh v. Dallas Railway & Terminal Co., 140 Tex. 385, 167 S.W.2d 1018; Blakesley v. Kircher, Tex.Com.App., 41 S.W.2d 53, 55; Northern Texas Utilities Co. v. Floyd, Tex.Civ.App., 21 S.W.2d 6, wr. dism., w. o. j.; 30-B Tex.Jur. 223, Sec. 44.

For a negligent act or omission to be a proximate cause, the result of such act must be one which was a foreseeable result. “But it seems to us that as applied to the law of negligence, at least, a better ground for the rule [of proximate cause] is that a party should not be held responsible for the consequences of an act which ought not reasonably to have been foreseen. In other words, it ought not to be deemed negligent to do or to fail to do an act when it was not anticipated, and should not have been anticipated, that it would result in injury to anyone. To require this is to demand of human nature a degree of care incompatible with the prosecutions of the ordinary avocations of life. It would seem that there is neither a legal nor a moral obligation to guard against that which cannot be foreseen, and under such circumstances the duty of foresight should not be arbitrarily imputed.” Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Bigham, 1896, 90 Tex. 223, 38 S.W. 162, loc. cit., 2nd col., at page 163. Safeway Stores of Texas v. Brigance, Tex.Civ.App.1938, 118 S.W.2d 812(5), dism., w. o. j.; Phoenix Refining Co. v. Tips, 1935, 125 Tex. 69, 81 S.W.2d 60(1); City of Dallas v. Maxwell, Tex.Com.App.1923, 248 S.W. 667(2, 3), 27 A.L.R. 927; 30-B Tex.Jur. 217, Sec. 40, and p. 222, Sec. 43.

It is not necessary that the defendant should or would reasonably anticipate the very consequences or the exact nature of the plaintiff’s injury or the precise manner of its infliction in order that such consequence be foreseeable. “ * * * It is sufficient that the defendant would reasonably have anticipated conse-. quences or an injury of the general nature of that which ensued. * * * ” Hopson v. Gulf Oil Corp., 150 Tex. 1, 237 S.W.2d 352, 356; Sullivan v. Flores, 134 Tex. 55, 132 S.W.2d 110, 111.

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Bluebook (online)
298 S.W.2d 79, 157 Tex. 367, 1956 Tex. LEXIS 654, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/biggers-v-continental-bus-system-inc-tex-1956.