Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Grenig

142 S.W. 135, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 41
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 29, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 142 S.W. 135 (Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Grenig) 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
Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Grenig, 142 S.W. 135, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 41 (Tex. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

JAMES, C. J.

The action is by appellee, a brakeman in appellant’s service, for damages for personal injuries resulting as alleged from a negligent coupling or collision of an engine with the caboose in which appel-lee was at the time engaged in the performance of his duties. The negligence alleged was, instead of moving the switch engine slowly and gently to effect the coupling, it was moved violently and rapidly, causing it to strike the caboose with such force and violence as to knock plaintiff about in the caboose, causing his injury, and also that' the brake apparatus of the switch engine was in worn-out and defective condition which defendant knew, or could have known by ordinary care, so that, when put in motion, it could not be stopped by those in control of it and by reason thereof the striking occurred with unusual violence, causing plaintiff’s said injury. The answer was a general denial; that the injury, if any, was due to contributory negligence of plaintiff, “and from risks known and open to common observation, or such as may have been known by him by the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety, and his negligence contributed to his injuries, in this: That at the time the cars were coupled together * * * the work was done in the usual and ordinary manner which was the long standing habit and custom in the yard, the method and the force used was such as was usual and common, all of which was well and long known to plaintiff, or by the exercise of ordinary care could have known that it was about to be done, and could and should, as a person of ordinary care, have protected himself against any jar that might result, but,. In-, stead of doing so, negligently failed to take any care to prevent the jar from disturbing him, whereas, had he taken ordinary precaution, he could have protected himself fully from any such jar.” The verdict was for plaintiff for $9,000.

[1] The first assignment of error complains of the tenth paragraph of the charge. In order to present the point made, it will be necessary to state the substance of the preceding paragraphs. They defined “negligence” and “contributory negligence.” The sixth paragraph instructed that the verdict should be for plaintiff if the jury found that, while plaintiff was in the caboose as alleged, defendant’s employés in charge of a switch engine caused it to be propelled against said caboose in an unusually hard and violent manner, and that such manner was negligence, and plaintiff was injured thereby as alleged. Paragraph 7 charged the jury to find for defendant if the impact was not unusually hard or violent, or was not negligence.

Paragraph 9 was as follows; “Now, if you believe from the evidence that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in the manner in which he attempted to light the lamp in the caboose, or in the manner or place in which he stood, as alleged in defendant’s answer, then I charge you the same would not bar a recovery by plaintiff in this case, *138 but the damages, if any you should award, should be diminished by you in proportion to the amount of negligence attributed by you to the plaintiff.”

Then follows paragraph 10, complained of, which reads: “If, in view of the foregoing instructions, your verdict shall be for the plaintiff, you shall award him such damages as you believe from the evidence he has suffered; and in this connection I charge you that, if you believe from the evidence that plaintiff has suffered mental and physical pain by reason of any injuries which you may find he has received, then such mental and physical pain, if any, should be considered by you in assessing the damages; and, further, if you find from the evidence that the injuries, if any, to plaintiff are permanent and will decrease his capacity to earn money in the future, then this also should he considered by you in assessing the damages.”

Appellant’s points are (1) that what is charged in paragraph 10 conflicts with paragraph 9, and was calculated to mislead the jury from considering or giving effect to the latter; and (2) that paragraph 10 authorizes the jury “to allow any and all damages sustained by plaintiff from whatever cause, and however remote and whether embraced in the pleadings or not, or whether authorized by law and other parts of the .charge or not, including loss of time, deafness, -and neurasthenia and injury to the leg generally, which was not claimed in the petition.”

The first of the above criticisms we think is untenable. The point made is that the language, “if in view of the foregoing instructions your verdict shall be for the plaintiff,” directed the jury’s attention simply to those of the preceding instructions which would lead them to find for plaintiff; and, in effect, told them that upon finding for plaintiff to find for him for all the damages he sustained, thus nullifying paragraph 9, requiring a diminution of his damages, if contributory negligence was found. In order to sustain this proposition, we would have to hold that the paragraph in question was calculated to cause the jury to overlook or ignore the issue of contributory negligence, ■which it clearly did not. As that issue was submitted, and as there was nothing in the charge complained of to divert their attention from it, they will be presumed to have considered it, and, if they did this and found contributory negligence, they could not have failed to understand that its effect was to diminish plaintiff’s damages, because the very paragraph presenting the issue instructed them t'o give it that effect, and they could not have considered that issue at all without necessarily being informed of its effect.

[2] The second criticism must also be overruled. Appellant’s proposition, and to that it is confined, is as follows; “Another vice of this charge is that it authorizes the jury to allow for any and all damages sustained by plaintiff from whatever cause, and however remote, and whether embraced in the pleadings or not, and whether authorized by law and the other part of the charge or not, including loss of time, and for deafness and neurasthenia, and injury to the leg generally which was not claimed in the petition. The evidence indicated that pre-existing and continuing disease caused the alleged neurasthenia, deafness, and irritable heart action and other troubles said to have existed at the time of the trial,-and that as a matter of fact he sustained no injury in the accident except a slight injury to the knee.”

The matter is presented by the brief in a manner that is confusing, but we gather that the complaint is that the charge stated that if the jury found for plaintiff they should award him such damages as they believed from the evidence he had suffered, and stopped there without explaining that such damages should be those proximately resulting frofn defendant’s negligence, and such as were supported by the allegations of the petition. These were matters of omission. It has been clearly so held in the matter of not informing the jury that plaintiff could not recover for injuries not pleaded or proved. Dallas Cons. Electric St. Ry. v. Motwiller, 101 Tex. 521, 109 S. W. 918. And we think it is so where th'e charge omits to explain that the damages should be confined to those which are the result of defendant’s negligence. Defendant, if not satisfied with the charge in this respect, should have requested something more specific.

[3,4]

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Bluebook (online)
142 S.W. 135, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galveston-h-s-a-ry-co-v-grenig-texapp-1911.