Haden Co. v. Riggs

84 S.W.2d 789, 1935 Tex. App. LEXIS 758
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 25, 1935
DocketNo. 10074.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 84 S.W.2d 789 (Haden Co. v. Riggs) 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
Haden Co. v. Riggs, 84 S.W.2d 789, 1935 Tex. App. LEXIS 758 (Tex. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinions

LANE, Justice.

O. F. Bright was the owner of a certain truck which was, on the 6th day of November, 1929, loaded with shell belonging to the Haden Company and being driven by one Maurice Robertson upon and along a street in River Oaks, an addition to the city of Houston. While being so driven it struck and killed Jimmy Riggs, a negro boy about five years of age, the son of William Riggs. Said truck had on it a sign which read, “We haul for The Haden Co.,” or “The Haden Co.”

This suit was brought by William Riggs, father of the deceased Jimmy Riggs, against the Haden Company, a corporation, W. C. Bright, O. F. Bright, and Maurice Robertson, to recover damages for the loss of his deceased son, Jimmy, and for the sum of $200 funeral expenses incurred by him in the burial of his said son.

The plaintiff alleged that on the 6th day of November, 1929, the Haden Company was engaged in the business of hauling shell, gravel, and other material by trueles, and that all of the defendants at suen time operated a number of trucks in and over the streets of Houston for the purpose of hauling such material; that on said date Jimmy Riggs was negligently run over and killed by a heavily loaded truck driven by defendant Maurice Robertson in a negligent and careless manner. The several acts of negligence alleged are specifically set out in the petition. The plaintiff further alleged: “That the said truck so running over and killing the said Jimmy Riggs, was owned, operated and controlled by the defendants herein and each of them, and said driver thereof, the said defendant. Maurice Robertson, was at the time and upon the occasion in question in the employ of the defendants, and each of them and under their management and control, and that the defendant Maurice Robertson at *790 the time, and upon the occasion in question was acting within the scope or apparent scope of his employment and for and on behalf of the defendants and each of them.”

Plaintiff’s prayer is for judgment against all defendants, jointly and severally, for the sum of $15,200, interest and attorney’s fees.

The Haden Company answered by general demurrer, general denial, and specially alleged contributory negligence on the part of the deceased boy, the details of which are of no importance in the disposition of the issues presented here. The Haden Company also pleaded as a defense that plaintiff, William Riggs, and his agents, servants, and employees were guilty of negligence contributing to and approximately causing the injury and death of Jimmy Riggs, (1) in permitting the child to play upon the street unattended, (2) in leaving the child in the care of one so occupied with other duties as to be incapable of properly looking after him, (3) in not instructing the child not to cross the street unattended by an older person, and (4) in not warning the child to look up and down the street before crossing it.

All defendants, other than the Haden Company, answered by general demurrer, general denial, and plea of contributory negligence on the part of the deceased child.

A jury was chosen to try the case, but after all the evidence was presented, the Haden Company moved for an instructed verdict in its favor, which motion was refused, and the Haden Company excepted. The case was then submitted to a jury, to which the court gave the following instructions :

“ ‘Negligence/ as that term is used in this charge, and as is applicable to this case in its legal signification, is want of ordinary care; and ordinary care, as used herein, is such care as a person of ordinary prudence would use under the same or similar circumstances.
“‘Proximate cause,’ as that term.is used in this charge, and as is applicable to this case, is a cause which in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any new and intervening cause, produces an event, and without which that event would not have occurred. To be a proximate cause of an event, it must be reasonably anticipated by a person of ordinary prudence that the injury or some similar injury would occur. There may be more than one proximate-cause of an event.
“By the term ‘new and intervening cause,’ as that term is used in the foregoing definition of ‘proximate cause’ is meant an agency which breaks the sequence between an original act and the injury, and which of itself is sufficient to produce the injury, or some like injury. This agency must not be set in motion by the party who initiated the original act, and must be an agency which, with its consequences, a person of ordinary prudence under the same or similar circumstances should not have reasonably foreseen.
“The term ‘preponderance of the evidence,’ as used herein, means the greater weight and degree of the credible testimony.
“Bearing in mind the foregoing instructions, you will now proceed to answer the following special issues:”

In answer to certain special issues submitted, 1 to 6, inclusive, the jury found that the truck in question was at the time in question being driven by an employee of the Haden Company; that such driver on. the occasion in question, just prior to the collision, failed to keep a reasonable lookout for pedestrians that might be crossing the street; that such failure was negligence and a proximate cause of the collision with Jimmy Riggs; that the- driver of the truck, at the time and on the occasion in question, failed to have the truck under such control as a person of ordinary prudence would have had under the same or similar circumstances; that such ■ failure was negligence and a proximate cause of the injury and death of Jimmy Riggs.

The jury found that the collision of the truck with Jimmy Riggs was not an unavoidable accident; that O. F. Bright in hauling for the Haden Company was not an independent contractor.

All special issues submitting the question of contributory negligence pleaded by defendants were answered favorably to the plaintiff. The jury by its verdict awarded to the plaintiff $1,800 as damages.

Upon return of the verdict of the jury, defendant the Haden Company presented its motion to the court praying for judgment in its favor non obstante veredicto, which motion was by the court refused, to which refusal the Haden Company excepted.

Upon the verdict of the jury the court rendered judgment for the plaintiff against *791 the defendants Maurice Robertson and the Haden Company-jointly and severally, for the sum of $1,800. 'By such judgment it is decreed that the plaintiff shall recover nothing against O. F. Bright and W. C. Bright! From the judgment so rendered against it, the Haden Company has appealed.

Appellant, for reversal of the judgment rendered against it and for the rendition of a judgment in its favor by this court, contends that the trial court erred in overruling its motion for an instructed verdict, in that there was no evidence to justify the submission to the jury of an issue as to whether or not the driver of the truck in question was an employee of the Haden Company at the time of the collision, and in that the undisputed evidence showed that the driver of the truck was not an employee of the Haden Company at the time of the collision, but, to the contrary, such undisputed evidence showed that Ü. F.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 S.W.2d 789, 1935 Tex. App. LEXIS 758, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haden-co-v-riggs-texapp-1935.