Cawthon v. City of Houston

212 S.W. 796, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 750
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 3, 1919
DocketNo. 462.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 212 S.W. 796 (Cawthon v. City of Houston) 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
Cawthon v. City of Houston, 212 S.W. 796, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 750 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

HIGHTOWER, C. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of one of the district courts of Harris county, sustaining a general demurrer to appellant’s petition; appellant having been plaintiff below.

J. H. Cawthon, the appellant, sued the city of Houston, a municipal corporation, to recover damages for personal injuries claimed by appellant to have been sustained by him in consequence of negligence on the part of the city of Houston, and, since the trial court sustained a general demurrer to his petition, we deem it best to here let his pleadings be shown in full.

Appellant’s petition, omitting the formal commencement, was as follows:

“I. That heretofore, to wit, on the 13th day of June, A. D. 1916, the said city of Houston, defendant herein, was acting under and by virtue of a special charter granted to it by the Legislature of the state of Texas, and was operating under what is known as the commission form of government, with a mayor and four commissioners constituting the representative authority of the said defendant, city of Houston. • That on or about the said date the said defendant, city of Houston, owned and operated under the supervision and direction of one Matt Drennan, who is and was known as the street and bridge commissioner, a certain wagon op.-erated and drawn by mules for the purpose of hauling sand, or anything else that the said commissioner or representative of the said defendant, the city of Houston, desired to be hauled; and that on or about the said date the plaintiff herein was hired by the said defendant, the city of Houston, acting by and through its said street and bridge commissioner, as a laborer at and for the price of $2 per day, as a helper to the driver of one of the teams belonging to the said defendant, the city of Houston, which, at the time of the injury to the plaintiff hereinafter complained of, was engaged in the hauling of sand to be used by the defendant, the city of Houston, and by said means, as said sand was needed, was distributed to, in, and throughout different portions of the said city of Houston.
*797 “II. That on or about the elate hereinbefore mentioned the plaintiff, while in the employ of the defendant, the city of Houston, as aforesaid, and while working in the capacity aforesaid, under the immediate direction and control of a superintendent, one Wiiliam Williams, who was in turn acting under the direction and authority of the said Matt Drennan, commissioner as aforesaid, was directed to go with the driver of one of said wagons and teams, which said driver was also in the employ of the defendant, the city of Houston, by and through its duly authorized commissioner and representative, to the city stables and barnyard of the defendant, the city of Houston, which said stables or barnyard were located and situated by and on Buffalo bayou, near the Sabine bridge, and within 'the corporate limits of the defendant, the city of Houston, where sand was being taken out of a sand bank, located as aforesaid, owned and operated by the defendant, the city of Houston, as aforesaid, to different portions of the said city of Houston by the means aforesaid; and the said sand was required by the defendant, the city of Houston, its agents, and representatives, to be excavated from said sand bank and placed in a sand pit to be shoveled therefrom into said wagons, which work the plaintiff was employed to do, and which he proceeded to do on said date of the injuries inflicted upon him; and at the place of excavation where this plaintiff was required and directed by those in authority from the defendant to take sand from said sand pit near said sand bank, and to load the same into his wagon for the purpose aforesaid, and at said time said sand bank at point from which the sand was so taken was a sand pit by a perpendicular wall of sand some 8 or 10 feet high; and in order to load the said wagon with said sand the plaintiff was required and directed, as aforesaid, to drive his wagon into the pit near said bank of sand, in order for the plaintiff to be able to reach and place said sand in his wagon as it was shoveled from said sand pit near said embankment.
“III. That on the date hereinbefore mentioned, and while in the discharge of his duty as required and directed in the loading of sand into his wagon, as aforesaid, said embankment, or a large portion thereof, consisting of about 5 square yards of sand, weighing over 3,000 pounds, suddenly caved in upon the plaintiff, knocking him down and breaking his right leg in two places below the knee, and injuring and spraining his left hip, and mashing and spraining his right foot and ankle; and the plaintiff was by reason of said sudden cave-in of said sand -embankment caught thereby and covered with sand to such an extent that he had to be, by others present at the time, dug out of the sand so caved in, in order to save his life, and that said injury aforesaid caused plaintiff great physical pain and suffering for a long period of time, and from the results of which the plaintiff is still suffering; and that the character of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff by reason of said sudden cave-in as aforesaid are such’ that he will be a cripple for an indefinite length of time, if not for life, and that he is now, and he will be for an indefinite length of time, unable to perform any manual labor, or such labor as he was accustomed to performing prior to the time of receiving said injuries, as aforesaid. That by reason of the breaking of his right leg as aforesaid, one of which breaks was at point in close proximity to the ankle, and at the point of said lower break, the leg, by reason of said injury, became much swollen and very painful in and about said right ankle joint, and that said condition will last an indefinite time, if not during the natural life of this plaintiff.
“IV. That the dangerous condition of said sand bank was unknown to this plaintiff, as he had been employed to do that character of work but a very short time before receiving said injuries as aforesaid, and said dangerous condition of said sand bank was not open to the observation of this plaintiff; but the dangerous condition of said embankment^ of sand was well known to the defendant, the city of Houston, by and through its duly authorized commissioner, representative, and superintendent, and the same was at the time of said caving in of said sand embankment, and had before been, open to the observation of the defendant, the city of Houston, by and through its commissioner or representative and superintendent aforesaid, and was and had been before said time well known as to the dangerous condition of said sand embankment, and that with said knowledge the said commissioner, representative, and superintendent negligently failed to give him notice of such dangerous condition of said sand bank, and failed to give the plaintiff any warning of the said dangerous condition thereof, to the plaintiff’s great loss and financial damage as aforesaid.
“V.

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Bluebook (online)
212 S.W. 796, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cawthon-v-city-of-houston-texapp-1919.