Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company v. DeLeon

373 S.W.2d 886, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1917
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 20, 1963
Docket3824
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 373 S.W.2d 886 (Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company v. DeLeon) 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 Company v. DeLeon, 373 S.W.2d 886, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1917 (Tex. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

WALTER, Justice.

Appellant’s second motion for rehearing is overruled. We adhere to our order affirming the judgment. However, our ■opinion dated September 20, 1963, and our ■opinion overruling appellant’s first motion for rehearing of October 18, 1963, are withdrawn and the following is substituted therefor:

Reymundo Frausto DeLeon recovered a judgment against Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company for $62,500.00, in a Federal Employers’ Liability Act case. The railroad has appealed.

DeLeon was working in an extra gang for the railroad and was ordered by his foreman to load a tool box on a box car. The box was estimated to weigh from four to seven hundred pounds. The terrain where the men were attempting to load the box was sloping away from the tracks. The ground was frozen and it was sleeting. One of the men attempted to unlock the box but the lock was frozen. Six men tried to carry it. The handles on it were too close together and the men had difficulty walking. Foreman Long told them “not to mess around with it, to load it as it was, that he was going to separate the men from the boys there.” Four men then tried to carry it. DeLeon was one of the four. Manuel Mindieta was also one of the •four. They walked about fifteen feet with •it and DeLeon told the boys to let it down. He felt something give and twist and said he hurt his back. The timekeeper took Tiim to Dr. Cutbirth’s office. DeLeon’s injury occurred on January 27, 1961.

DeLeon was 28 years of age at the time of his injury. The parties stipulated that a person 28 years of age has a life expectancy of 43 years. Withholding Tax Statements revealed that DeLeon earned approximately $3,000.00 in 1959, and approximately $3,000.00 in 1960, while working for the railroad. At the time of his injury he was working 40 hours a week earning $2.05 per hour. He was asked if he was getting better or worse and he stated that “sometime I get worse, and then it doesn’t hurt so much, and there are times when it hurts a lot”, and that he was not able to work. A medical witness testified that DeLeon was suffering with a rupture of an intervertebral disc between the fifth lumbar vertebra and the sacrum; that heavy lifting and straining frequently produces a disc injury; that in his opinion such ruptured disc was caused by lifting the tool box, and that DeLeon was totally and permanently disabled.

One of appellee’s lawyers in his argument to the jury said: “A box that weighed some four or five or seven or eight hundred pounds, too much whatever it is. Whatever its size, was a casket that carried the future health of this young Mexican.” Appellant’s objection that such argument was prejudicial and inflammatory was overruled by the court.

One of appellee’s lawyers, in his argument to the jury, said: “Now, was this man injured as a result of an unavoidable accident? That is the following issue. Mr. Foreman, or Madame Forewoman, as the case may be, when you get to that issue read it carefully so that there can be no confusion about it, because it, like the rest, are vital. A wrong answer under the evidence means justice is defeated.” The appellant objected to such argument on the grounds that it was improper and that it was an attempt to tell the jury what they should do and the effect of their answer. The objection was overruled.

The appellant contends that the court erred in permitting appellee’s counsel to misquote and misstate the testimony of one of appellant’s medical witnesses, by telling *888 the jury that Dr. Lazarz said: “I saw the disc, ruptured disc of the disc syndrome * * At this point counsel for appellant said: “If the Court please, he did not say ruptured disc”, and counsel for appellee replied, “He said disc. You are right, Walter. I apologize.” Counsel, nevertheless, asked the court to instruct the jury not to consider such argument and the court sustained such objection, and counsel for appellee said, “Walter was right that time.”

Another point urging improper jury argument is made to the following: “but when any remark is made about, ‘well, this story was a fabrication, and they go out here and get this testifying doctor,’ I want to tell you that most of the practice that we get comes from former jurors in these lawsuits * * After such argument was made the following took place:

“MR. JORDAN: If the Court please, I think that is * * *

MR. HELM: All right. It does not come from them, then. All right, It comes from other sources

THE COURT: Overrule the objection

MR. JORDAN: Note our exception.”

The court sustained appellant’s objection and instructed the jury not to consider the following argument: “I do not claim to be a doctor, although I am kind of like a doctor, I have seen lots of back injuries, and I have seen a lot of people years after these lawsuits are over, and you do not find many happy people. * * * ”

The court overruled appellant’s objection to the following argument: “This business of bringing Dr. Mayo up, well, Dr. Mayo is a good man, I am sure. Never saw him before in my life. What did he contribute to this? Nobody has claimed in this entire thing * * * want to get these local doctors around here hoping some of the jurors might be kin to some of them or know them, and say, ‘well, Dr. Mayo said so-and-so.’ It’s * * * ” Appellant’s objection to such argument was “If the Court please * * * * * * got nothing more to do with it than a jack rabbit. * * * We object to that. That is not the purpose of bringing * * *

MR. HELM: All right.

MR. JORDAN: * * * any witnesses-in this Courtroom. Shirley knows it. It is improper, and we object to it.”

Appellant has another point complaining about the following argument:

“For example, Mr. Jordan said, ‘Now, Doctor, you did not find anything to suggest a ruptured disc, did you, or disc injury,’’ and you saw how carefully those Doctors-would hesitate and think, and study, and not say, ‘No’ Say, ‘Well, yes, I did.’ After the argument was made the following took place:

“MR. JORDAN: If the Court please, I think that is out of the record. That is not the testimony as I recall it. We object to it, to his going out of the record.

MR. PLETCHER: Ladies and Gentlemen, as you recall * * * excuse me, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Members of the jury, you recall the records yourself, and if Counsel is mis-stating the record in any way, disregard it.”

The court overruled appellant’s objection that the following argument was out of the record: “These professional witnesses, these physicians, when they testify, had better be accurate, as accurate as they possibly can be if they do not want the Medical Society and every body else right-on top of them, like a duck on a june bug.”

One of appellee’s counsel made the following argument: “This is not as easy as. sitting down and multiplying life expectancy or work expectancy times earnings. This is something you can not use a slide rule on, but you can judge it this way, I suggest to you. You can not feel the pain of any one. I have had a toothache for *889 "three days now, and nobody but me can feel it. I do not know whether you, or you, or you, are having the worst headache or the worst back ache in the world.

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Bluebook (online)
373 S.W.2d 886, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gulf-colorado-santa-fe-railway-company-v-deleon-texapp-1963.