Houston East & West Texas Railway Co. v. Stell

67 S.W. 537, 28 Tex. Civ. App. 280, 1902 Tex. App. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 26, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 67 S.W. 537 (Houston East & West Texas Railway Co. v. Stell) 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
Houston East & West Texas Railway Co. v. Stell, 67 S.W. 537, 28 Tex. Civ. App. 280, 1902 Tex. App. LEXIS 112 (Tex. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

FLY, Associate Justice.

Appellee sued appellant to recover dam- . ages alleged to have accrued by reason of his unlawful expulsion from a freight train on which he was riding from Diboll to Lufkin, stations on appellant's line of railway. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for appellee in the sum of $1500.

Appellee alleged that he procured a ticket, on April 30, 1899, from the agent at Diboll station which entitled him to ride on all trains from that station to Lufkin, and got on a train which caried both freight and passengers, and after the train had gone about two miles he, with other passengers, was ejected by the conductor because he refused to pay cash; that the night was dark, and it was raining, and that he was compelled to walk back to Diboll. His damages are stated as follows: “That at the time of said occurrence plaintiff alleges the truth to be that he was taking, and had the morning of the occurrencé taken, calomel, and so informed said conductor and agent of said fact at the time he was ejected from said car; that by reason of unlawful acts plaintiff became *281 and is now salivated, and has lost eight of his teeth, suffered intensely with sore mouth, sloughing off of flesh caused as aforesaid, and that by reason of said unwarranted acts his whole system has become affected, and that he is now suffering both mentally and physically by reason of said acts and is now suffering from said acts, and that he has not since said acts, nor is he now, and he alleges that he will not be, able to either work mentally or physically for a long time, and he alleges that said injuries caused as aforesaid are permanent.” Tersely stated, the allegations amount to a charge that by the ejection from the cars and consequent exposure salivation was produced from which the injuries resulted.

On the trial of the cause Dr. Burroughs, the physician who had been attending appellee, swore that “salivation is produced after a man has taken mercury and then submits to the vicissitudes of the weather, and as cold or wet, or anything that suddenly stops the secretions of the skin. * * * To the best of my knowledge and belief it is not the prevailing opinion of physicians who have been educated within the last ten or fifteen years that exposure does not produce salivation.” Dr. Mynett, witness for appellant, testified: “I do not think his getting wet, after taking the calomel, would make any difference; the absorption of the calomel in the system produces salivation; exposure does not have anything to do with it at all.” Dr. Boyd, witness for appellant, swore: “Exposure to damp and cold weather after taking calomel does not have any effect towards producing salivation. I base that conclusion on teaching in the first place, and the next place from observation. I get that from all authorities I have read and I can name you several. The prevailing, accepted opinion of the leading medical fraternity, as to exposure to cold or damp weather producing or not producing salivation is, it has no effect. * * * The medical profession of to-day accepts as the true theory of salivation the amount of mercury absorbed and the length of time it would be retained in the system, and the theory of exposure causing salivation is not entertained in the scientific world at all, so far as I know.”

As will readily appear the testimony of these witnesses raised the issue sharply as to whether the exposure to the rain produced the salivation which caused the injuries to appellee. The issue thus raised was not presented to the jury except in a very general way by a requested charge of appellant, which was given, and appellant requested the following charge: “If you find as a fact that the plaintiff was salivated, then, before you can return a verdict for the plaintiff in this case, you must believe from a preponderance of the testimony, in this case, that the plaintiff was not salivated by reason of having taken an overdose of calomel, or that he was not salivated by permitting a quantity of calomel to remain in his system too long; and you must further find from a preponderance of the evidence that the salivation (if any) was caused as a proximate result by reason of his exposure brought about by his leaving the defendant’s train at the time and under the circumstances that he *282 did, and that he was improperly ejected from said train, and that such salivation, if any, was the reasonable or probable result of such exposure, and unless you so find the facts to be, your verdict should be for defendant.”

The requested charge would certainly not be adopted as a model or a precedent, and yet we think it embodies, when analyzed, the law of the case. The first part of the charge may be treated as surplusage, because if the jury had found that the salivation was not a proximate result of the expulsion from the train, and that appellee was not improperly ejected, no damages would have been allowed, whether it was found that the salivation did or did not result from other causes. The requested charge presented an issue clearly raised and sharply defined by the evidence, and appellant had the right to have it presented to the jury. Railway v. McGlamory, 89 Texas, 635; Railway v. Rogers, 91 Texas, 52; Railway v. Casseday, 92 Texas, 525.

There is no merit in the third, sixth, seventh, and eleventh assignments of error. The agent at Diboll did not violate any rule in not giving a permit to appellee to ride on the freight train. He had not been furnished any permits and could not give them, of course. The law as to the assignments above named is stated correctly, we think, in cases of Railway v. White and Jackson, 61 Southwestern Reporter, 436 and 440, which are companion cases to this.

Hone of the assignments of error save the one hereinbefore discussed is well taken.

For the error in failing to give the special charge hereinbefore copied, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

Reversed and remanded.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING.

Appellee’s motion is based on the statement that the refusal of the charge for which we held that the judgment should be reversed was given in substance in other requested instructions, and the record may bear out the contention.

Another question, however, is presented by the record, which will necessitate an adherence to the judgment reversing the judgment of the lower court and remanding the cause.

In the answer filed by appellant one of the issues raised was the knowledge of appellee as to a lack of power on the part of the ticket agent to abolish a rule that passengers in order to ride on freight trains must, at all stations where tickets are sold, obtain a permit as well as a ticket .from such agent.

It may be stated as settled that a railroad company may make and enforce a rule forbidding passengers to be carried on freight trains, or if it permits passengers on freight trains, it may, after due notice, require such passengers to provide themselves with a particular kind of ticket. Elliott on Railroads, sec. 200, and authorities cited.

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67 S.W. 537, 28 Tex. Civ. App. 280, 1902 Tex. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-east-west-texas-railway-co-v-stell-texapp-1902.