Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Harris Bros.

211 S.W. 255, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 487
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 5, 1919
DocketNo. 6039.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 211 S.W. 255 (Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Harris Bros.) 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. Harris Bros., 211 S.W. 255, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 487 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

BRADY, J.

Appellees brought this suit against Kansas City, Mexican & Orient Railway Company of Texas and the appellant, Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company, for damages arising out of a cattle shipment from Big Lake, Tex., to Ft. Hancock, Tex. The trial resulted in judgment for appellees against appellant, and in favor of the defendant Kansas City, Mexican & Orient Railway Company of Texas for its costs against appellees; no liability having been shown as to such defendant. The case was tried on special issues, and the findings of the jury may be summarized as follows: That the appellant was guilty of negligence in permitting, the air brakes on the train carrying the shipment to become out of repair so that, in starting and stopping the train, the violent jerks thereof caused the cattle to be injured, aud in causing the train to violently knock down and pile up the cattle in the ends of the cars, and in roughly handling the cattle upon their arrival at Ft. *257 Hancock, in spotting the cars at tlie stock pens, and in unnecessarily switching the cáttle around the yards at destination for about five hours, while unloading, and between the time of unloading part of the ears and the remainder of the cattle; that the reasonable market value -of the cattle killed was $2,250, and the reasonable market value of the cattle injured was $2,000. These findings are sustained by the evidence.

Upon this verdict judgment was rendered for appellees against appellant for the sum of $4,250, from which judgment the appellant has taken this appeal.

[1] The first assignment o'f error presents the claim that the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s first motion for continuance. The motion was based upon the absence of a material witness, and in form and manner seems to be in compliance with the statutory requirements, and therefore it is claimed by appellant that the motion should have been granted as a matter of right.

We are of the opinion that this contention should be denied, and that the question of granting or overruling the motion was a matter within the sound discretion' of the trial court. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Brooks, 63 Tex. Civ. App. 231, 132 S. W. 95; Texas Ry. v. Hall, 83 Tex. 675, 19 S. W. 121; Railway v. Robertson, 103 S. W. 443; Railway v. Woolum, 84 Tex. 570, 19 S. W. 782; Railway v. Wright, 47 S. W. 56; Railway v. Walker, 76 S. W. 228; Baldessore v. Stephanes, 27 Tex. 455.

The motion is very lepgthy, and we will not attempt to set out the details of same. It appears therefrom, however, that it was claimed that the testimony of the witness J. B. Bean was desired to refute appellees’ claim that the cattle were roughly handled while at Ft. Hancock and while being unloaded, and to establish that the cattle were thin and in poor condition, and that the extra switching and delay at Ft. Hancock in unloading the cattle was due to the unusual request of appellees that the dry cattle should be first unloaded, and not in the order in which the cars first came for spotting at the chutes in the unloading pens; that the witness was an experienced cattle man and familiar with shipping cattle, and a disinterested witness.

It appears that interrogatories were propounded to this witness and to other witnesses by appellees on February 18, 1918, and crossed by appellant’s counsel, and commission issued on February 25, 1918; that the depositions of two of these witnesses were returned into court March 4, 1918, but, for some unknown and unexeused reason, the commission was not executed as to the witness Bean; that the appellant had arranged for the personal attendance of. the witness at the trial of the case, but that, because of illness in his family, he was unable to appear at the trial. Appellant’s counsel, who made this affidavit, also showed that he was in charge of the defense of the case, and that, when he crossed the interrogatories to Bean, he did not kndw what his testimony would be, and did not know the facts, because he had not received the investigation papers from the claim agent; and that he received his first information to this effect from the claim agent on March 2, 1918.

To the motion is also attached the affidavit of the claim agent to the effect that he had obtained a statement from the witness Bean that he would testify substantially as indicated in the motion, but it does not state when he obtained such statement. The claim agent further swore that he was unable to place the facts before appellant’s counsel prior to March 2d, because he was engaged in the investigation of other matters, and especially had for a month prior to that date been engaged in investigating and attending the trial of a case against appellant at Alpine, Tex.; that, when he learned this case was set, for March 6th, he immediately began to notify the witnesses for appellant to attend the trial, and then learned of the illness in the family of witness Bean, who reported that he would not be able to attend, but was willing to report at a later time, or give his deposition; and that the witness Bean had, at the request of plaintiff’s attorneys, gone to El Paso to give his deposition there in response to the interrogatories heretofore mentioned.

The cross-interrogatories to this witness fairly disclosed that appellant’s counsel did not know at the time that he would testify to the facts claimed in the motion for continuance.

[2] The statute on continuance requires not only that due diligence should be alleged in the motion, but that it must show the diligence used. In this case it appears that plaintiff’s original petition was filed on December 3, 1917, more than three months prior to the trial, and the interrogatories propounded by appellees to this witness were prepared and copies served upon appellant’s counsel under the original petition, and before the filing of the amended petition, upon which the appellees went to trial. The interrogatories propounded disclose that the grounds of negligence relied upon by appel-lees were substantially those later pleaded and found by the jury. It is also shown in the record by the testimony of appellant’s local agent at Ft. Hancock that the witness Bean was there on the night the cattle were unloaded at that place, and that, at the special instance and request of the local agent, Mr. Bean cheeked up the cattle that were killed and injured, and that he made a check of the cattle that were buried, which verified Mr. Bean’s check. It is apparent that, by the use of reasonable diligence, the *258 agents and representatives of appellant could have ascertained what his testimony would be as to the issues in dispute in this case long prior to the time that the cross-interrogatories we're propounded to him; and no excuse is offered for not taking his deposition in the cause. Appellant had ample time in which to take the deposition between the filing of the suit and the date of trial, but made no attempt to do so until and except through the filing of cross-interrogatories, only a little over a week before the trial. This, together with the fact that the motion does not disclose when the claim agent of appellant received the statement from the witness Bean as to what his testimony would be, we think, relegated the question of granting or refusing the continuance to the sound discretion of the court.

[3]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Texas Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Harlan
236 S.W.2d 564 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1951)
Owen v. King
84 S.W.2d 743 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1935)
Mathis v. Overland Automobile Co. of Dallas
265 S.W. 1069 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
211 S.W. 255, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galveston-h-s-a-ry-co-v-harris-bros-texapp-1919.