Flowers ex rel. Flowers v. Wilson

319 S.W.2d 199, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1645
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 10, 1958
DocketNo. 10624
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 319 S.W.2d 199 (Flowers ex rel. Flowers v. Wilson) 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
Flowers ex rel. Flowers v. Wilson, 319 S.W.2d 199, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1645 (Tex. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

ARCHER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a take nothing judgment based on a jury verdict, growing out of a suit for personal injuries alleged to have been received by Donald Flowers, a minor then eleven years old, by having had his left foot injured'by the negligent operation by appellee of an automobile towing a trailer loaded with a boat and outboard motor.

The appeal is founded on nine points assigned as error and are to the effect that the verdict of the jury is unsupported by the evidence and the negative answer to special issue No. 1 is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and the negative answer to special issue No. 3 is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and so are the answers to issues Nos. S and 8, and the court erred in submitting issues Nos. 8, 10 and 11, and finally in overruling the motion for New Trial.

Points Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, directed to the insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict of the jury and that the answers of the jury are so against the overwhelming weight of the evidence that such answers ought not to stand.

Issue No. 3 inquired if the defendant failed to keep his automobile and trailer under proper control and the jury found that he did not.

The jury found in response to issue No. 5 that the defendant did not fail to keep his trailer within the confines of the roadway.

The jury found in response to issue No. 8 that Donald Wayne Flowers failed to keep such a lookout for vehicles approaching from his left as a person of ordinary prudence would have kept under the same or similar circumstances.

We do not believe that appellant’s point No. 1 presents any more than a general condemnation of the order of the court in entering judgment.

[201]*201Assignments Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 concern the question of whether there was sufficient evidence to go to the jury on the primary acts of negligence alleged to have been committed by the defendant, such as the failure to keep a lookout, failure to keep his car under control, and to keep his car and trailer within the confines of the roadway, all of such issues were answered favorable to defendant.

The jury found that the minor plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident, by failing to keep a proper lookout for vehicles approaching from his left and in sitting on the curb with his feet in the street.

We shall consider the testimony in an effort to determine the sufficiency thereof to support the answers of the jury.

The defendant in part testified that he did not realize or know that the trailer cut across the corner or that there had been an accident until later that evening and further testified specifically as follows:

“Q. Of course, so. I would like to ask this question, Bob: Would you say that — in other words, when you turned the corner you say you did not see the little boy? A. Yes.
“Q. If he was standing there you could have seen him, but you did not see the little boy? A. Yes.
“Q. If he was standing there you could have seen him, but you did not see the child, is that correct? A. That is correct.
“Q. I believe this picture does show — I believe it shows a telephone pole somewhere around about in there, there is a telephone pole on the corner, is that right? A. Yes, sir. There is.
“Q. Is the telephone pole such that it might have obstructed the view of the child? A. Possibly, yes, sir.
“Q. By the same token, you still can’t explain how the tire got over the curb ? A. No, I can’t.
“Q. You never had any sensation or felt it when it came over that curb ? A. No, except that bumping sensation, I heard that in the middle of the block.
“Q. You don’t associate anything with the corner, is that right? A. No, sir.
* ⅛ >{i * ⅝ ⅜
“Q. * * * did you see this boy walking along the street there ? A. No, sir. I didn’t.
“Q. Did you see any colored folk walking along the street at that point? A. Not to my knowledge, I don’t remember seeing any.
“Q. This telephone post, I believe we have pretty well established that was the only thing on that corner could1 possibly have obstructed your view, is that true? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Let me see that photograph, please, sir. (Reporter hands to counsel) Realizing the fact that this is somewhat enlarged photograph what would you estimate the size of that pole by the diameter of it? A. You mean across?
“Q. Yes, diameter, across? A. I don’t know. Fourteen (14) or sixteen (16) inches, possibly.
“Q. It would not be wide enough to hide a boy, would it? A. I don’t know unless he was standing right up behind it.”

Mary Robinson, a witness called by plaintiff, testified:

“A. No, sir. I said that the little boy was not walking ahead of me, when I got off the bus he was sitting on the curb.
[202]*202“Q. Whenever you got off the bus he was sitting on the curb, was that before the accident occurred. A. That was before the accident.
“Q. He was sitting on the curb, all right, with his little feet on the street, his little body on the curb? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And then it was after that that this accident occurred, is that true? A. That is right.
“Q. And you saw that yourself? A. Yes, sir. I saw it. I was right there when the car hit his foot and went on.”

Donald Wayne Flowers testified:

“Q. You have been sitting here throughout all this and I want you to just tell these folks to the best of your ability what happened out there that day, where you had been, what you were doing, and just what happened to you. A. Do you want me to tell—
“Q. Yes, sir. A. I had been swimming in the swimming pool from about four o’clock when I left my grandmother’s house, I had come back from swimming with one of my cousins, and my grandmother asked me to go to the store which is just across the street down on Magnolia, and I was coming home with a loaf of bread, as I passed the liquor store I saw the boat with “PAM” on it, when I got down to the corner it ran into the corner and jumped over the curb and ran over my foot, and I sat down on the grass and started calling for by grandmother and then that colored lady ran over to the house and knocked on the, door and got my grandmother to the door, that colored man picked me up and carried me across the street, my grandmother called my mother; she was at work.
“Q. And what did you do, son? I mean what took place after that?
A. Well, my grandmother after she called my mother she called the police, then when my mother got there, they tried to get — they called the doctor, and then all * * *.
“Q. Did they take you to the hospital? A. Yes, sir. Mrs.. Spain’s husband took us to the Baptist Hospital.
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Bluebook (online)
319 S.W.2d 199, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flowers-ex-rel-flowers-v-wilson-texapp-1958.