Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Anderson

13 S.W. 196, 76 Tex. 244, 1890 Tex. LEXIS 1245
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1890
DocketNo. 2841
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 13 S.W. 196 (Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Anderson, 13 S.W. 196, 76 Tex. 244, 1890 Tex. LEXIS 1245 (Tex. 1890).

Opinion

HENRY, Associate Justice.

The petition charges that heretofore, to-wit, on the 29th day of August, A. D. 1888, and prior and subsequent thereto, defendant, as a common carrier of freight and passengers, was engaged in running and operating coaches, passenger and freight trains, drawn by locomotives, operated and propelled by steam, on and along Avenue A, in the city and county of Galveston, and across Twenty-seventh Street in said city, and at and upon the said Twenty-seventh Street on said Avenue A and the intersection of said streets in said city, the said Avenue A and Twenty-seventh Street and the crossing and intersection thereof being a public street and thoroughfare in constant and daily use by the public, and one of the most generally used streets in said city, the same being within the corporate limits thereof; that on the day and date last aforesaid, while plaintiff was engaged in the lawful pursuit of his business, and while in so doing he was walking along the said public street and said highway, to-wit, Twenty-seventh and across said Avenue A and the crossing thereof, and while upon the crossing at intersection of said public streets, he was run down or run into and struck with great force by one of the locomotives of said defendant drawing a train of cars at great speed on said Avenue A and across said Twenty-seventh Street, greatly wounding and bruising him, and injuring plaintiff, and so crippling him as to render him sick and weak for the remainder of his life; "that the front of said engine struck plaintiff on the back and right side, and on the back of his head and neck, and so bruising his head and body, and so injuring his spine, and so shocking his nervous system, and so bruising his back and whole body as to seriously affect his back, his spine, right side, head, and neck, as not only to weaken his whole body and destroy his physical health, but also to greatly affect and impair his mind, and cause him great distress, physical and mental anguish, and to such an extent as to prevent his doing any work or pursuing his avocation, that of a cotton screwman and stevedore, or to attend to any business whatever; that plaintiff at the time of said injury was about forty-four years of age, a strong and able bodied man, and had been so for years prior thereto, and for many years had been steadily employed and earning the sum of one hundred dollars per month, by which he was enabled to support himself and family, consisting of a wife and five children; that since the said injury plaintiff has been incapable of earning anything or doing any work whatever, and is a cripple for life, and will be a sufferer the balance of his life; [250]*250that the ordinances of the city of Galveston, and especially and particularly section 3, article 3, of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Galveston, provide that it shall be unlawful to run a steam engine or any railroad within its city limits at a greater speed than four miles per hour. Plaintiff avers that on the day and date last aforesaid persons approaching or crossing the said Avenue A on Twenty-seventh Street were prevented from seeing whether locomotives or trains were approaching from the west by reason of the fact that a long line of freight cars were kept standing on a side track parallel with and within a few feet of the main track, and the one upon which plaintiff was struck. Plaintiff avers that notwithstanding the premises aforesaid, and notwithstanding the law of the State of Texas in reference to a warning bell or whistle, and notwithstanding the ordinances of the city of Galveston, on the said day and date the said defendant, without warning or notice by bell or whistle, or any other mode or manner, with great force and violence, and at great speed, to-wit, the rate of twenty miles per hour or more, without having a competent flagman to give notice of approaching trains, as required by law, and as was the custom of defendants, ran into and upon and ran down plaintiff, no opportunity having been given him of escaping, injuring him as aforesaid, all of which occurred without fault or negligence on the part of the plaintiff, but through the negligence, carelessness, and unlawful and improper conduct of said defendant, its servants, and its agents.

The defendant answered by a general denial, and alleged specially that the plaintiff, had he looked or listened for the approaching train, which he could have done, would have discovered the same in time to have avoided the accident; and further, that the plaintiff was not struck on the crossing at the intersection of Avenue A and Twenty-seventh Street, but that he was struck some distance east of Twenty-seventh Street crossing, while carelessly and negligently walking on the trestle work, or bridge, upon which the railroad track was constructed, and which was not intended to be used for the purpose of foot travel, and that he failed to exercise any care to learn of the approaching train.

The case was tried before a jury, and there was a verdict and a judgment in favor of plaintiff for $6000. It is complained that the court erred in the following particulars:

1. In refusing to submit to the jury the first and second special issues requested by the defendant, which were as follows: (1) Could the plaintiff by looking westward before he went upon the railroad track have seen the approaching train in time to have avoided his injury? (2) If, immediately before he stepped on the railroad track upon which he was struck by the engine, the plaintiff had looked to the westward, would he have seen the approaching train in time to have remained off the track and avoided the accident?
“ 2. In refusing to give the fourth special charge requested by .the [251]*251defendant, which is as follows: (4) You are charged that no matter how negligent the defendant or its employes may have been, that nevertheless if you find from the evidence that the plaintiff Anderson failed to use his senses of sight and hearing to discover the approaching train, and that if he had looked for the train he could and would have seen the same in time to avoid the injury, you will find for defendant.
“3. In not in some form charging the jury that it was the plaintiff’s duty to use care and prudence to discover the approaching train before going on the railroad track, and in not charging the jury that it was the plaintiff’s duty to look for the approaching train from the west before going on the railroad track, and if by the exercise of such precaution he could have discovered the train in time to have avoided the accident, he could not recover.”

In the case of Houston & Texas Central Railway v. Wilson this court said: “Our statute does not require persons approaching a public crossing on a railroad to stop and listen and look out for approaching trains; therefore it would be incorrect for the court to instruct the jury that a failure to do so would constitute negligence. Whether a failure to do so would or would not constitute negligence is a question of fact to be determined by the jury from the facts and circumstances of each particular case.” 60 Texas, 143, 144.

In the case of Texas & Pacific Railway Company v. Chapman, 57 Texas, 82, it was said on this subject: “In the seventh instruction refused the court was asked to tell the jury to find for defendant if plaintiff on approaching the crossing did not look for approaching trains, and that if he had done so the injury would not have occurred. There is no statutory rule or fi-xed rule of law prescribing exactly what a party must do who approaches a railroad crossing.

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Bluebook (online)
13 S.W. 196, 76 Tex. 244, 1890 Tex. LEXIS 1245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gulf-colorado-santa-fe-railway-co-v-anderson-tex-1890.