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

77 S.W.2d 326, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1060
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 1, 1934
DocketNo. 9973
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 77 S.W.2d 326 (Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Waldo) 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. Waldo, 77 S.W.2d 326, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1060 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

This cause as now at bar is a repercussion of its former appearance, the denouements in which are fully reported under the same names and style in 119 Tex. 377, 29 S.W.(2d) 323, (Tex. Civ. App.) 35 S.W.(2d) 447, and (Tex. Com. App.) 50 S.W.(2d) 274, respectively ; hence need not be repeated here.

This time in the trial court it was, in óur opinion, submitted to a jury’s arbitrament upon special issues appropriately embodying the essential fact basis for the application of the law of the case, as laid down by-the Supreme Court in 50 SvW-(2d) 274, supra.

The jury has now- answered those inquiries, and its verdict, being neither without any evidence to support it nor so against the weight of what was heard as to be clearly wrong, cannot be disturbed on this appeal for any lack of sufficiency in proof.

These conclusions, in their reaches, require the overruling of all appellant’s assigned criticisms of the proceedings had upon the trial before the jury, especially those to the effect that the term “practice,” as used in the court’s charge, should' have been defined to the jury, that “unavoidable accident,” likewise appearing, was erroneously defined, and that none of the inquiries propounded followed the law as so declared by the Supreme Court.

The submitted issues and the jury’s verdict thereon were these:

“No. 1. Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that it was a practice on and just prior to September 17, 1926, for various employees of the defendant working in the same room with the plaintiff to propel paper clips, pins or other articles through the air in the direction of other employees?”
Answer: “We do.”
“No. 2. If you have answered Special Issue No. 1 ‘We do’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that E. R. Doss had become acquainted prior to September 17, 1926, with the fact that such employees were -indulging in such practice in so propelling paper clips, pins, or other articles through the air?”
Answer: “We do.”
“No. 3. If you have answered Special Issue No. 2, ‘We do,’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the failure of the defendant to issue specific instructions for bidding such practice of propelling paper clips, pins or other objects through the air in the office where plaintiff was working prior to and on September 17, 1926, was negligence as that term has been herein defined to you?”
Answer: “We do.”
“No. 4. If you have answered Special Issue No. 3 ‘We do’ then and then only in that event answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the failure of the defendant to issue specific instructions against the practice of propelling paper clips, pins or other objects through the air in the office where plaintiff was working prior to and on September 17, 1926, was a proximate cause as that term has been herein defined to you of the plaintiff’s injuries, if any he sustained?”
Answer: “We do.”
“No. 5. If you have answered Special Issue No. 1 ‘We do,’ and Special Issue No. 2 [328]*328‘We do not,’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that E. R. Doss, Chief Clerk of the Freight Accounting Department of defendant, failed to exercise ordinary care to acquaint himself with the practice that employees of the defendant were propelling paper clips, pins or other articles through the air in the office where plaintiff was working just prior to and on September 17,1926?
“Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not’ as you find the fact to he.”
To which special issue the jury made no answer.
“No. 6. If you have answered Special Issue No. 5 ‘We do’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such failure as is inquired about in Special Issue No. 5 on the part of E. R. Doss, was negligence, as that term has been herein defined to you?
“Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not’ as you find the fact to he.”
To which special issue the jury made no answer.
“No. 7. If you have answered Special Issue No. 6 ‘We do’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such negligence as is inquired about in Special Issue No. 6 was a proximate cause, as that term has been herein defined to you, of plaintiff’s injuries?
“Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not’ as you find the fact to be.”
To which special issue the jury made no answer.
“No. 8. Do you find that plaintiff’s injuries, if any, were not the result of an unavoidable accident?
“Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not’ as you find the fact to be.
“In connection with the foregoing issue you are instructed that an unavoidable accident is an event happening without fault or negligence upon the part of any one which proximately caused the injuries complained of.”
To which special issue the jury answered: “We do.”
“No. 9. What sum of money, if any, if paid in cash now will fairly and reasonably compensate the plaintiff Willis W. Waldo for the injuries, if any, proximately caused by the negligence of the defendant, if any, on the occasion in question, taking into consideration exclusively the following elements of damage:
“(a) Physical pain and suffering by him, if any, from September 17, 1926, down to the date of this trial.
“(b) Mental anguish suffered by him, if any, from September 17, 1926, down to the date of this trial.
“(c) The reasonable value of his diminished capacity, if any, to perform labor and services from October 81, 1927, down to the date of this trial.
“(d) The reasonable value, if any, if paid in money now, of his diminished capacity to perfoi-m labor and services in the future beyond this trial.
“Answer stating the amount in dollars and cents, if any you find.”
To which special issue the jury answered: “$15,000.00 (Fifteen Thousand Dollars).”

To have essayed a didactic expounding to men of at least average intelligence of the meaning of the word “practice,” as thus so naturally appearing in these five simply stated inquiries about an incident in itself as a-b-c like as children’s play, would have been like undertaking to demonstrate the obvious, hence a perversion of, rather than a compliance with, R. S. art.

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Bluebook (online)
77 S.W.2d 326, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1060, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galveston-h-s-a-ry-co-v-waldo-texapp-1934.