Dallas Transit Company v. Young

370 S.W.2d 6
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 28, 1963
Docket16190
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 370 S.W.2d 6 (Dallas Transit Company v. Young) 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 Transit Company v. Young, 370 S.W.2d 6 (Tex. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinions

[8]*8BATEMAN, Justice.

This damage suit stems from a collision, or series of collisions, between four motor vehicles, all headed in a northerly direction on Second Avenue in the City of Dallas. The first car in the line was a Ford sedan owned and occupied by appellee Jesse Ford and his wife, which was stopped awaiting an opportunity to make a left turn. The second vehicle was a Chevrolet panel truck owned and operated by appel-lee E. D. Young, which had moved up behind the Ford and was either stopped or going very slowly. The next in line was appellant’s city bus operated by one Holt. The fourth vehicle was a Chevrolet pick-up truck owned and driven by Luther Rodgers.

Ford and Young sued Dallas Transit Company, Holt and Rodgers, claiming damages for bodily injuries. The jury found that the bus driver, Holt, failed to keep a proper lookout, which was a proximate and, in fact, the sole proximate cause of the collision. No other party was found guilty of negligence proximately causing the collision. Appellant and Holt moved for judgment non obstante veredicto, which motion was overruled, and the court rendered judgment on the verdict in favor of Young and Ford against appellant and Holt.

Appellant alone has appealed and presents only one point of error; viz., that the trial court erred in overruling its motion for judgment non obstante veredicto because (a) there was no evidence to support the improper lookout findings, and (b) appellees filed judicial admissions that Rodgers’ truck hit the bus from behind before the bus hit Young’s truck. We see no merit in this point and affirm the judgment.

Appellant’s burden here is to demonstrate that there was no evidence having probative force upon which the jury could have made the findings in question; and in determining whether that burden has been discharged we “may consider only that evidence, if any, which, viewed in its most favorable light, supports the jury findings, and we must disregard all evidence which would lead to a contrary result.” Biggers v. Continental Bus System, 157 Tex. 351, 303 S.W.2d 359, 363; Lynch v. Ricketts, Tex.Civ.App., 306 S.W.2d 410, 413, reformed and affirmed 158 Tex. 487, 314 S.W.2d 273.

Holt testified that he did not know whether Young’s panel truck had completely stopped before the bus struck it, that he could have stopped the bus instantly, that there was nothing between him and Young’s truck to prevent him from seeing its movements, but that he did not know, or could not recall, whether Young “had his hand out from the time he first saw him stop up until there was a collision.” His testimony further indicated that the truck was about 200 feet ahead of him when he first observed it, that he knew that both his bus and the Young truck would have to stop because of the stopped Ford, and that the Young truck was only about ten feet ahead of him when the Rodgers vehicle struck the rear of the bus. There is no evidence that he observed the Young truck at any time in the interim. Young testified that he brought his truck to a complete stop behind the Ford and extended his arm outside his vehicle to indicate that he was stopping, that his stop light was on, and that he was in a stopped position three or four seconds before his vehicle was struck.

While this evidence may lack something in clearness and directness, yet we must hold that it is some evidence, more than a scintilla, sufficient to carry the issues to the jury and to support the findings thereon. The lookout maintained or neglected by a motorist is often very difficult to prove by direct evidence, and yet many cases turn, as this one does, on this single issue. Improper lookout, like any other negligent act or omission, may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Lynch v. Ricketts, 158 Tex. 487, 314 S.W.2d 273, 275. And it was held by the Fort Worth Court [9]*9of Civil Appeals that “[t]he collision itself is some evidence of negligence on the part of the driver who strikes a preceding car from the rear.” Renshaw v. Countess, Tex. Civ.App., 289 S.W.2d 621, 624, no wr. hist. See also Caraway v. Behrendt, Tex.Civ. App., 224 S.W.2d 512, no wr. hist., and Miller v. Wagoner, 356 S.W.2d 363, no wr. hist.

On the other hand, appellant relies heavily on Rankin v. Nash-Texas Co., 129 Tex. 396, 105 S.W.2d 195, 199, in which it was held that: “The occurrence of an accident, or a collision, is not of itself evidence of negligence.” This principle is firmly rooted and widely recognized. “But, while the naked fact that an accident has happened may be no evidence of negligence, yet the character of the accident and the circumstances in proof attending it may be such as to lead reasonably to the belief that, without negligence, it would not have occurred.” Washington v. Missouri, K & T Ry. Co., 90 Tex. 314, 38 S.W. 764, 765.

As said in Hoey v. Solt, Tex.Civ.App., 236 S.W.2d 244, 246: “It can not be gainsaid that one who fails to stop his automobile in response to a traffic signal, but propels the same into the rear end of an automobile which has stopped in obedience to the signal, is guilty of negligence proximately causing injury or damage unless such conduct is excused by some extenuating circumstance or condition.”

Appellant attempts to explain or excuse the collision of its bus with the rear of Young’s truck, not by saying that Young stopped suddenly or failed to signal his intention to stop, or that the brakes on the bus suddenly became ineffective without warning or fault on the part of appellant or its employee, but on the sole ground that Rodgers negligently hit the rear of the bus and pushed or knocked it into the rear of Young’s truck. This was apparently the only reed on which appellant could lean; and it turned out to be a weak one. Unless appellant could establish that its bus was pushed involuntarily into the vehicle ahead of it, the conduct of its driver stood rather defenseless. His testimony was quite definite that the bus was struck violently from the rear — violent enough to knock him loose from the steering wheel, and to cause him to lose his balance, his cap to fall off and his foot to come off the brake pedal — and that this force shoved the bus into the Young truck. He was corroborated in this, to some extent, by two passengers on the bus. There was testimony to the contrary, which, although weak, was more than a scintilla. Joske v. Irvine, 91 Tex. 574, 44 S.W.2d 1059. (See Footnote) 1 The jury had a right to be[10]*10lieve this testimony and reject that of Holt and the two passengers.

Obviously, that is exactly what happened, as evidenced by the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 61, as follows:

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370 S.W.2d 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dallas-transit-company-v-young-texapp-1963.