Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. v. Enloe

225 S.W.2d 431, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1828
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1949
DocketNo. 14138
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 225 S.W.2d 431 (Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. v. Enloe) 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
Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. v. Enloe, 225 S.W.2d 431, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1828 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

CRAMER, Justice.

Appellees, Enloe and wife, sued appellant for damages for personal injuries and for property damage to their automobile growing out of a collision between a street car, traveling north on its right of way as it came out into East Waco Street, and ap-pellees’ automobile, traveling east on said Waco Street. The verdict was for $31,000 which, on motion for new trial, was reduced by remittitur to $20,000. This appeal is from the $20,000 judgment after such re-mittitur.

Appellant assigns nine points of error which will be considered in four groups. The first group (points 1, 2, and 3) complains of the trial court’s action in overruling appellant’s objections to the court’s charge for the reason that it omitted the word “sober” after the words “ordinarily prudent” and 'before the word “person” in its 'definition of (1) ordinary care; (2) proximate cause; and (3) proper lookout. In other words, defendant desired- the standard 'of care in each definition to be that required of “an ordinarily prudent sober person.” The evidence on the issue of intoxication, as shown by the record, was disputed. No issue, or explanatory instruction, or definition including such additional element'was requested or submitted to the jury. Under such circumstances, taking into consideration the conflict in the evidence on intoxication, it is our opinion that the addition of the word “sober” in each of the three definitions would have been a comment upon the evidence.

We recognize the rule that if the definition is erroneous, an exception to the definition is sufficient, without a request for a special instruction, or proper definition; but such rule does not apply here where the issue of intoxication is a controverted issue, or where a standard definition omits elements which defendant considers should be included therein. Great American Indemnity Co. v. Sams, 142 Tex. 121, 176 S.W.2d 312, opinion adopted by the Supreme Court. The case of San Antonio Public Service Co. v. Fraser, Tex.Civ.App., 91 S.W.2d 948, where intoxication was undisputed, is not applicable here. Neither is Missouri-K & T Ry. Co. v. McGlamory, 89 Tex. 635, 35 S.W. 1058, where specific instruction on the defense of intoxication as a defense of contributory negligence was requested by appellant to be submitted to the jury. Appellant also cites Speer on “Law of Special Issues,” sec. 580, where suggested issues on intoxication as a defense' of contributory negligence are set out. Since no such issues were requested, this citation is not' in point. The assignments are overruled.

In the second group of points (4 and 5) appellant complains of the excessiveness of the verdict in favor of Geneva Enloe for $13,000 after remittitur of $7,000 from the jury verdict of $20,000, and of the $6,000-judgment after remittitur of $4,000 from the jury verdict of $10,000 in favor of Billy L. Enloe for personal injuries plus $1,000‘ automobile damages. We have fully reviewed the evidence and are of the opinion that, although the trial court required an $11,000 remittitur before his judgment was, entered, the judgment is still excessive.. Geneva Enloe testified in part that she was, 23 years of age; she was unconscious after the accident and the first she remembered, she was in the hospital; she had a cut about five inches long from the hairline in front to the back of her head, which was exhibited to the jury; a cut about four inches long on her left hip which bled until it was stitched up; her shins were cut, necessitating stitches; her leg and foot skinned and both ankles sprained; after treatment at Parkland Hospital she was taken home where she was confined to her bed for about three months; she was dizzy and the head wounds were sore; she was unable during that time to do any labor or work; she has. [433]*433had headaches, off and on, and at time of trial still had the same kind of headaches; her left ankle still swells and is painful when she is on her feet; she had never had an accident before this one and had no trouble of any kind with her ankle; did not, before the accident, ■ suffer with the headaches she now experiences; she has not been able to work out of the home since the accident, but before the accident was able to hold a job doing office work.

Billy L. Enloe, an army pilot, testified that both he and his wife were thrown out of and clear of his automobile; he was taken to Parkland Hospital where he was treated for a cut below the eyebrow, a cut in the right- eyeball, a cut through the bridge of his nose and a cut underneath his right eye; also a cut on his knee and shin, each about an inch long; that it required 17 stitches to sew up the cuts around his right eye; he suffered -considerable pain in his leg; was removed by army ambulance to Love Field Hospital where he remained for seven days; then transferred to Fort Worth airfield hospital where he was confined for six additional days; he was grounded as an army pilot for five months, due to impairment of his vision; his right eye now tends to tire before his left eye; eyelid flickers and his eye waters; his eyebrow gets sore and he developes headaches from the soreness in his right eye below where he was cut; scar tissue formed in his right eyebrow and made a knot which feels numb; when it is touched, the feeling is in his hairline; he has headaches which originate around his eye about every month or six weeks and last from 24 to :48 hours; . the headaches cause pain; the flickering of the eye tends to cause it not to function as well as it should'; and since the accident he has taken sick leave a few days as result of such headaches.

Considering all the evidence, we feel that a recovery of $7,000 in favor of Geneva Enloe and $2,100 for personal injuries plus $900 damage to the automobile in favor of Billy L. Enloe should be the maximum recovery herein by said parties. This does not require a- reversal of the judgment, however, if a remittitur -is filed by appellee for the amounts hereinabove found to be excessive within 10 days from this date.

The third group of assignments (6, 7, and 8) involve jury argument asserted to-be so prejudicial as to require a reversal of the case, even though no objection was made or exception taken by appellant at the time such argument occurred. Appellant’s -bill of exception No. 4 shows the argument complained of. In the opening argument appellees’ attorney stated: “And I say to you people that this whiskey business, this whiskey has been manufactured and put into this lawsuit. It wasn’t there. They brought a man here that testified that he saw it, he saw this whiskey bottle out there. He pointed it out to another man there and he picked it up and they smelled of it, and one of them said it was lying on a piece of upholstery, one said it was lying on the grou'nd, one said there was some women’s clothes around, another said he didn’t see any women’s clothes-around. There was no women’s -clothes-in the car, no suit cases in it, no upholstery knocked out of the car at all. Trying to-fi,x something, trying to get those two people on that whiskey out there. It is onetime they are dealing with teetotalers, and if- the whiskey bottle was out there, somebody put it out there, probably, in my opinion, under this evidence.”

In - the closing argument appellees’ attorney stated: “Mr. Ford is appealing to-you because T said it looked like they manufactured the stuff.

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Bluebook (online)
225 S.W.2d 431, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1828, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dallas-railway-terminal-co-v-enloe-texapp-1949.