El Paso Electric Co. v. Cannon

69 S.W.2d 532, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1437
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 8, 1934
DocketNo. 2963.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 69 S.W.2d 532 (El Paso Electric Co. v. Cannon) 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
El Paso Electric Co. v. Cannon, 69 S.W.2d 532, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1437 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

HIGGINS, Justice.

The appellee, Cannon, while a passenger upon a street car operated by appellant, was cut and stabbed by a fellow passenger. Cannon brought this suit against appellant to recover damages resulting from his injuries.

Appellee, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Peables, boarded the car in Juarez, Mexico. The car was well filled with passengers returning to El Paso. It crossed the international bridge and proceeded a few blocks when a fight occurred between Cannon and a stranger upon the car. Cannon struck the stranger and knocked him unconscious. According to the testimony of Cannon and other witnesses, the stranger was the aggressor in this fight. Other testimony was to the effect that Cannon provoked the difficulty. The stranger was soon restored to consciousness and resumed his seat in the car near the front. Cannon also resumed his seat. The car then proceeded to the intersection of San Antonio and Oregon streets in El Paso and *533 stopped to discharge passengers. As the car slowed down a number of passengers,' including Cannon, Mr. and Mrs. Peables, and the stranger, arose and proceeded towards the front exit. The stranger and Cannon reached the front end of the car near the motorman, the stranger being in front. There a second fight took place between them in which Cannon was cut and stabbed.

The case was submitted upon the general issue resulting in verdict and judgment in Cannon’s favor for $3,333.

Briefly stated, the court’s charge upon the issues was to this effect:

To find for plaintiff if the assault was uninvited by him and defendant’s employees in charge of the car were negligent in failing to protect plaintiff and such negligence proximately caused his injuries.

To find for defendant unless it was found:

1. The acts of the person who cut plaintiff were uninvited.

2. That defendant’s employees could have reasonably foreseen and anticipated injury to plaintiff by the person who cut Him, and by the exercise of ordinary care could have prevented it. And

3. To find for defendant if plaintiff was the aggressor in the conflict in which he was cut.

Special charges requested by defendant were given to this effect:

No. 1. To find for defendant if “the plaintiff by reason of conduct, if any, upon his part such as was reasonably calculated so to do, provoked a difficulty with another passenger, proximately resulting in the injuries complained of by him.”

No. 3. To find for defendant if “the plaintiff, by his acts and conduct, if any, or by his language, if any, provoked or brought about a fight with another party and that in said - fight, if any, the plaintiff was cut or injured as alleged by him.”

No. 4. To find for defendant if “the plaintiff, .Tack Cannon, in the presence and hearing of the party with whom he had the difficulty, cursed or abused such party, or used any violently abusive language to or concerning such person, under circumstances reasonably calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, and that such words, or acts, or conduct, if any, upon the part of the plaintiff, provoked and brought about the difficulty in which he received the injuries complained of.”

By its special charge No. 2, defendant requested an instruction to find in its favor if the plaintiff and another party engaged in a fight or mutual combat together upon the street car and that in said fight or mutual combat, the plaintiff received the injuries complained of by him.”

Appellant complains of the refusal of this last-mentioned charge in that connection, asserting that if the charge was not correctly drawn it whs nevertheless sufficient to indicate the defensive issue of mutual combat and impose upon the court the duty of preparing and submitting a correct charge upon the same.

In the main charge plaintiff’s right to recover was conditioned upon a finding that the assault was uninvited by him. Later therein the jury was instructed to find for defendant if plaintiff was the aggressor in the conflict. Then in the special charges the defensive issues of plaintiff provoking the difficulty were fully submitted.

“The issue of mutual combat as a limitation upon the right of self-defense does not arise alone from the fact that the parties to the affray are mutually engaged in it. The issue arises out of an antecedent agreement to fight. The agreement must exist. Of course, it may be proved by direct testimony or inferred from circumstances.” Carson v. State, 89 Tex. Cr. App. 342, 230 S. W. 997, 998.

The evidence is lacking in anything to indicate any prearrangement or agreement to engage in combat. The evidence does raise the issue of plaintiff being the aggressor and provoking the difficulty. Such being the state of the evidence, “then in the nature of things the issue of mutual combat is not in the ease.” “Because two parties mutually fight, or do fight, and in that sense there is a mutuality of combat, does not suggest the issue of mutual combat which takes away the right of self-defense.” Reese v. State, 49 Tex. Cr. App. 242, 91 S. W. 583, 584.

We regard the evidence as insufficient to raise the issue of mutual combat as defensive matter, for which reason a charge upon . such issue was not necessary. ’

Mrs. Peables, witness for plaintiff, upon her redirect examination, was permitted to testify that she and Mr. Peables and plaintiff met in the office of Mr. Hill, counsel for plaintiffs, and talked about the case before the suit was filed, and she at that time told them there was a man got on the front end of the car at the bridge and stood in behind the motorman. This testimony was admitted over objection that it was irrelevant, etc., *534 and plaintiff could not bolster up the testimony of his witness in such manner.

Mrs. Peables was a witness for plaintiff in rebuttal. Defendant had previously placed upon the stand a Mr. Woolsey, a United States officer in the Public Health Service. Woolsey, in behalf of defendant, had testified he boarded the car at the imijiigration office and stood in the front end near the motorman ; when the second fight began, he did not know who started it because he had his back turned. When he discovered the fight, he felt it was his duty to stop it and grabbed Cannon; somebody pushed the other man, and by that time the door was open and the other man stepped off the car and walked away.

Upon her direct examination Mrs. Peables testified a man got on the front of the car at the bridge and stood behind the motorman; that this man did not grab Cannon. She further testified the motorman held Cannon during the fight in which the cutting occurred, 'it is plain Mrs. Peables was referring to Woolsey as the man who got on the car at the bridge and stood by the motorman and whom she testified did not hold Cannon during the fight.

Mrs. Peables was cross-examined, in part, as follows:

“Q. You didn’t testify in this case about this Public Health Officer, as having gotten on at the bridge, until after the Public Health Officer testified? A. I don’t understand your question.
“Q.

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Bluebook (online)
69 S.W.2d 532, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/el-paso-electric-co-v-cannon-texapp-1934.