Garza v. San Antonio Transit Co.

180 S.W.2d 1006, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 756
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 10, 1944
DocketNo. 11409.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 180 S.W.2d 1006 (Garza v. San Antonio Transit Co.) 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
Garza v. San Antonio Transit Co., 180 S.W.2d 1006, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 756 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

MURRAY, Justice.

This suit was instituted by Tomas G. Garza and wife, Santiaga Garza, against the San Antonio Transit Company, a corporation, seeking to recover damages allegedly resulting from injuries received by Santiaga Garza when shé attempted to board a bus operated by the'.Trailsit Company. The cause was submitted to á jury upon special issues .and, in keéping with the verdict of the jury, judgment was rendered that the plaintiffs recover nothing from the defendant.

From this judgment Tomas G. Garza and Santiaga Garza have prosecuted this appeal.

Appellants first complain because the trial court admitted in evidence the chart of the patient Santiaga E. ’ Luna (now Santiaga Garza) kept as the “Clinical Record” of the Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital.

Miss’ Fe’rtsch, Record Librarian at the Robert B. Green Hospital, under subpoena duces tecum, testified that she had charge of the records of that hospital; that the Robert B. Green Hospital was a public hospital maintained and operated by the County of Bexar and the City of San Antonio ; that she was familiar with the routine of keeping the records; that the rules require a record to be made of the patient and thé record is kept up from day to day by the various doctors who have charge of the case, and when a case is. closed, the records come into .the record room of which she .had charge ; that the records brought with her-were the regular records kept.by the hospital in connection with Mrs. Santiaga Luna; that the hospital maintains records at this time similar to the 1929 records’having'the same information on it, the difference being in the form as to how it opens;" the contents are the same; that the records of the hospital now are similar to the records ’just introduced in evidence and contain the same information: The original records admitted in evidence are sent up as Exhibit No. 4 accompanying the Statement of Facts. Examination of these exhibits shows that they are authentic original records of the hospital as to the patient, kept in substantial conformity with Art. 4485, Verrion’s Tex.Ann.Civ.Stats., containing “name, age, sex, color, marital condition, residence, occupation and place of past employment,” and a record “of the condition of each patient when admitted and *1008 from time to time thereafter.” The records hear original signatures of persons who purport to have been the various doctors who had charge of the various operations performed on the patient. It is undisputed that the charts admitted in evidence cover the appellant, Mrs. Santiaga Garza, then Mrs. Santiaga Luna.

It appears that the superintendent of the hospital had appointed Miss Fertsch as custodian of the hospital records and had placed her in charge thereof. She testified that the hospital was a county hospital, mtaintained by Bexar County, Texas, and the City of San Antonio, and, as such hospitals may be established by counties only under the authority of Art. 4478, Vernon’s Texas Ann.Civ.Stats., we presume that the Robert B. Green Hospital was established under the authority of Art. 4478, supra. Art. 4485, Vernon’s Tex.Ann.Civ.Stats., authorizes and requires the superintendent of a county hospital to cause to be kept records of each patient admitted showing their name, age, sex, color, marital condition, residence, occupation and place of past employment and, further, the condition of each patient when admitted and from time to time thereafter. The record offered in evidence was shown to be such a record and was therefore a public record and properly admitted in evidence. Dallas Coffee & Tea Co. v. Williams, Tex.Civ.App., 45 S.W.2d 724. Appellants’ first point is overruled.

Appellants’ second and third points are as follows:

“Second Point. Where the proof on the part of plaintiff showed that as she attempted to board defendant’s bus and while on the outside thereof, the driver of the bus closed its doors on her left hand and then started the bus forward suddenly, thereby injuring her left hand and other parts of her body, from which she was still suffering at the time of the trial, it was error for the Court to permit, over objection, defendant to show by a female witness that she, with the aid of other employees in the operation of what defendant claim as the same bus, had experimented with the doors by having the operator of the bus close the doors on her hands and starting the bus forward, because same could serve as no test or criterion in this case, since nc — her the physical facts nor a person in the same mental and physical condition as the plaintiff were possible of reproduction.
“Third Point. It was error for the Court to permit, over objection, the witness, Lawrence Mclnerny, to testify that he had put his hand in the doors and allowed them to be closed thereon without hurting them, because the circumstances were not shown to be in any wise the same as in the instant case.”

The record shows that evidence as to the experiments was admitted. In addition to the experiments the record further shows that the middle door of bus No. 171 (the bus involved in the alleged accident) is two doors that join together when they close and they fold twice to each side and that the edges of the doors are composed of a rubberized material that form a kind of rubber cushion.

Mrs. Garza had testified that when she attempted to board the bus the operator of the bus closed the middle doors on her hand, thereby injuring her hand and, further, that when the bus started up with a jerk she was further injured. There was nothing improper in Mrs. Garza’s attempting to enter the middle door, as she had been ordered to transfer, along with other passengers, from the bus on which she was riding to another bus.

In 17 Tex.Jur. 401, § 142, it is stated:

“It is permissible to prove the existence or nonexistence of a fact by experiments made for that purpose under circumstances substantially the same as those existing at the time of the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the alleged fact, and evidence of experiments conducted after the occurrence in question is material and admissible where it serves to shed any light on the transaction involved * * *. It is not necessary that the conditions be absolutely identical, but it is sufficient if they are substantially similar; any dissimilarity goes to the weight of the evidence rather than its admissibility. The decision of the preliminary question as to whether the conditions are so substantially similar as to authorize the introduction of the evidence is necessarily for the trial court, and he has considerable latitude in deciding it.”

The evidence shows that the experiments were made under circumstances substantially the same as those testified to by Mrs. Garza and therefore the testimony was admissible. Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Whitfield, Tex.Civ.App., 206 S.W. 380; Panhandle & S. F. R. Co. v. Haywood, Tex.Civ.App., 227 S.W. 347; Krueger v. Brenham Furniture Mfg. Co., 38 Civ.App. *1009 398, 85 S.W. 1156; Ft. Worth & D. C. R. Co. v. Yantis, Tex.Civ.App., 185 S.W. 969.

Appellants complain of certain arguments made by counsel for appellee to the jury. We overrule these points.

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180 S.W.2d 1006, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 756, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garza-v-san-antonio-transit-co-texapp-1944.