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

28 S.W. 391, 8 Tex. Civ. App. 635, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 229
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 28, 1894
DocketNo. 893.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 28 S.W. 391 (Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Cole) 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
Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Cole, 28 S.W. 391, 8 Tex. Civ. App. 635, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 229 (Tex. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinions

KEY, Associate Justice.

Appellee (plaintiff below) instituted this suit in the District Court of Brown County to recover $10,020 damages alleged to have been sustained by reason of a wrongful ejection from a train at Corwith Junction, near Chicago, 111., alleging that the appellant herein and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company were the owners of a continuous line of railway from Zephyr, Texas, to Chicago, 111.; that the said two roads were under the same management and under a common ownership and control, and if not under such management, then they were the agents each of the other, and fully authorized to make contracts for the transportation of freight and passengers over the entire continuous line; that on or about November 2, 1891, defendant entered into a contract with plaintiff at the town of Zephyr to transport him and five car loads of stock from said town of Zephyr to Chicago; that said contract was executed on behalf of defendant through its local agent at Zephyr, Texas, J. D. Harris, which said contract provided for plaintiff’s return carriage from the said city of Chicago to the town of Zephyr, the contract being attached to said petition and marked exhibit “A;” that on or about the 7th day of November, 1891, in the city of Chicago, the defendant (appellant herein), through its agent at Chicago, issued the plaintiff a “drover’s ticket,” which said drover’s ticket was attached to the petition and made an exhibit thereto; that thereafter plaintiff boarded the train at Chicago and presented to defendant’s agent said stock contract and said drover’s pass, and demanded transportation thereon; that the conductor refused to honor said tickets, and demanded payment of fare, and on plaintiff’s failure to pay the same, said conductor violently ejected him, to his great damage, etc.

Defendant answered by general and special exceptions, by general denial, and special answers, as follows: 1. By special denial of any *637 agency between it and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, any joint and common management or control between the two roads; but, to the contrary, that they were separate organizations and entirely independent of each other. 2. That if any contract was entered into, the contract only provided for the transportation of plaintiff and his cattle to Purcell, I. T., and specially limited defendant’s liability to its own line, and that plaintiff’s damages were sustained beyond defendant’s line, for which it was not liable. 3. That if said contract provided for the transportation of plaintiff to Chicago and return, then the same was executed wholly without authority on the part of said Harris, local agent, executing the same; that under the rules and regulations of the defendant, and by special notice on said live stock contracts, defendant’s local agents were forbidden to. enter into contracts for the transportation of drovers beyond its line, which fact plaintiff knew, or ought to have known by the exercise of ordinary diligence. 4. That if defendant was held bound by said contract of shipment, then that on arrival of plaintiff’s stock at Kansas City, Mo., plaintiff voluntarily entered into another contract for the transportation of himself and cattle from Kansas City, Mo., to Chicago, 111., and that, if he was ever ejected from any train, such ejection was made by the agents of said Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, and while plaintiff was travelling under contract made with said company. 5. That plaintiff at Kansas City, Mo., entered into a new contract with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, and by the rules and regulations of said company said contract was not good for return transportation, but at Chicago, 111., had to be exchanged for a drover’s ticket; that, in pursuance of such contract and such rules and regulations, he surrendered said contract and received a drover’s pass, good for transportation from Chicago to Kansas City; that on boarding the train he failed and refused to either exhibit said drover’s pass or any authority for riding on said train, and refused to pay his fare, and was ejected without any unnecessary force; that he was ejected for failing to comply with the reasonable rules and regulations of the road on which he was travelling.

Trial December 7,1892, before a jury, and judgment for the plaintiff for $500. Motion for new trial was made and overruled, and the case has been brought to this court by appeal.

The testimony shows the following facts:

1. The plaintiff, Cole, made a contract with J. D. Harris, the defendant’s station agent at Zephyr, Texas, for the shipment of five cars of cattle from Zephyr, Texas, on defendant’s road, to Chicago, 111. Said contract was executed at the time alleged in plaintiff’s petition, was in writing, and corresponded with exhibit “A” attached to plaintiff’s petition, which is a copy of said contract, and is made a part of this finding.

2. The plaintiff shipped his cattle under said contract, and went with them himself to Chicago. On November 7,1891, the plaintiff left *638 Chicago to return to Zephyr, Texas, and while on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and upon his refusal to pay fare, the conductor put him off the train at a station called Corwith. The plaintiff’s testimony as to the force used, the manner, place, and time of his ejection from the train, condition of the weather, etc., will support the $500 verdict returned by the jury, if his expulsion from the train was wrongful.

Additional facts will be stated in discussing the grounds relied upon for a reversal.

Opinion. — 1. Before separately considering the questions presented in appellant’s brief, it is proper to note that, except as hereinafter stated, no complaint is made against the action of the court in giving or refusing charges. This fact, it seems to ns, is important, because some of the questions presented under assignments of error which only assail the verdict of the jury are questions of law, which more appropriately relate to the charge of the court. The jury obtain the law from the court’s charge; and when the dissatisfied litigant assigns error upon the verdict, or upon the action of the court in overruling a motion for a new trial based upon the ground that the verdict is not supported by the law and evidence, as to that assignment he acquiesces in the correctness of the charge by which the jury were governed; and the question for decision then is, considering the charge as correct, will the testimony sustain the verdict? Questions of law involved in charges given or refused can only be raised by assignments of error predicated upon the action of the court in giving or refusing such charges.

2. The ninth assignment charges error in that portion of the court’s charge which directly and specifically submitted the plaintiff’s theory of the case to the jury. Neither the assignment, nor any proposition thereunder, points out or indicates the supposed error which the assignment, in general terms, charges; and, under the statute and rules, the assignment must be regarded as waived. The tenth and eleventh assignments, which relate to the action of the court in refusing to give certain special charges asked by appellant, are subject to the same objection, and must be treated in like manner.

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Bluebook (online)
28 S.W. 391, 8 Tex. Civ. App. 635, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 229, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gulf-colorado-santa-fe-railway-co-v-cole-texapp-1894.