Houston Electric Co. v. Settle

51 S.W.2d 648, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 620
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 5, 1932
DocketNo. 9715.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 51 S.W.2d 648 (Houston Electric Co. v. Settle) 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 Electric Co. v. Settle, 51 S.W.2d 648, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 620 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

Appellee Settle sued appellant electric company to recover $3,000 in damages for injuries to himself and his automobile, alleged to have resulted from a collision at the corner of Bayland and Watson streets in the city of Houston, between a street car owned and operated by appellant, and an automobile owned and operated by appellee.

He alleged that the collision and the resultant damages were proximately caused by the negligence of the operator of the street car in the following particulars:

(1) In operating the street car at a greater rate of speed than was safe under the then existing weather conditions.

(2) In failing to ring a bell or sound a gong.

(3) In failing to keep a proper lookout.

(4) In proceeding into the intersection where the collision occurred without slackening his speed.

(5) In proceeding into the intersection without bringing the street car to a stop.

(6) In operating the car at a dangerous rate of speed under the prevailing weather conditions.

(7) In failing to observe the right of way rules.

(8) In permitting a coat of ice to form upon the front windows of the street car.

(9) Discovered peril.

The appellant answered by general demurrer, general denial, a plea alleging that the proximate cause of the damages complained of was appellee’s own contributory negligence in the following particulars:

1. Failure to keep his automobile under reasonable control.

2. Failure to keep a proper lookout.

3. Operating his automobile in excess of twenty miles per hour.

4. Operating his automobile at a dangerous rate of speed under the attending circumstances.

5. Failure to use ordinary care to avoid the collision after discovering the street car.

6. Failure to give warning.

7. Failure to have brakes on his automobile in good condition.

■ 8. Failure to have his automobile under reasonable control.

Further by special plea that the sole proximate cause of the damages complained of was the negligence of the appellee in the following enumerated particulars:

*649 (1) Failure to keep his automobile under reasonable control.

(2) Failure to keep a proper lookout.

(3) Operating his automobile in excess of twenty miles per hour.

(4) Operating his automobile at a dangerous rate of speed under the attending circumstances.

(5) Failure to use ordinary care to avoid the collision after discovering the street car.

(6) Failure to give warning.

(7) Failure to have brakes on his automobile in good condition.

(S) Failure to have his automobile under reasonable control.

The forty special issues and answers of the jury, on which the fact issues were deter-' mined, may be paraphrased as follows:

I. Did defendant’s motorman operate the street oar at a greater rate of speed than was reasonably safe? II. Was such act negligence? III. Was it a proximate cause? “Yes.”

IV. Did the motorman fail to give signal or warning as he entered the intersection? V. Was such failure negligence? VI. Was it the proximate cause? “Yes.”

VII. Did defendant’s motorman fail to keep a proper lookout? VIII. Was such failure negligence? IX. Was it a proximate cause? “Yes.”

X. Did defendant’s motorman proceed into the intersection without slackening his speed? XI. AVas this negligence? XII. Was it a proximate cause? “Yes.”

XIII. Did defendant’s motorman proceed into the intersection without stopping his car? XIV. Was this negligence? XV. Was it a proximate cause? “Yes.”

XAH. Did the defendant’s motorman operate the street car with the windows in front thereof blurred with ice? XVII. AVas this negligence? XAUTI. Was it a proximate cause? “Yes.”

XIX. Did defendant’s motorman discover the perilous position of plaintiff in time, by the exercise of ordinary care, to have averted the collision? XX. Was such failure a proximate cause?

The jury answered XIX, “No,” and failed to answer XX.

XXI. Did plaintiff, L. L. Settle, fail to hare his automobile under proper control? XXII. Was this negligence? XXIII. AAras it a proximate cause?

The jury answered XXI, “No,” and did not answer XXII and XXIII.

XXIV. Did L. L. Settle fail to keep a proper lookout? XXAr. AAras his failure negligence? XXU. AVas it a proximate-cause?

The jury answered XXIV, “No,” and failed-to answer XXV and XXVI.

XXVII. At what rate of speed was plaintiff, L. L. Settle, traveling as he approached the intersection? XXVIII. Was the rate of speed a proximate cause of the occurrence complained of?

The jury answered XXVII, “Twenty miles per hour,” and XXVIII, “No.”

XXIX. At what rate of speed was plaintiff, L. L. Settle, driving immediately prior to the collision? XXX. Was such rate of speed a proximate cause?

The jury answered XXIX, “Eight,” and XXX, “No.”

XXXI. Was L. L. Settle’s speed a negligent rate of speed under the circumstances? XXXII. Was such rate of speed a proximate cause?

To XXXI the jury answered, “No,” and • failed to answer XXXII.

XXXIII. Did Plaintiff, L. L. Settle, fail to exercise ordinary care after discovering the street car? XXXIV. Was such negligence a proximate cause?

The jury answered XXXIII, “No,” and failed to answer XXXIV.

XXXV. Did L. L. Settle fail to give any warning or any signal of his approach? XXXVI. AVas such failure, negligence? XXXVII. AVas it a proximate cause?

The jury answered XXXV, “Yes,” XXXVI, “No,” and failed to answer XXXVII.

XXXVIII. Was the occurrence complained of an unavoidable accident? “No.”

XXXIX. Was the sole proximate cause of the occurrence the icy, slippery condition of the street? “No.”

XL. What amount of money was plaintiff damaged? “$1000.00.”

Judgment was entered against appellant in appellee’s favor for $1,241, which included the amount of the verdict and $241 for other items that were agreed upon as to amount.

The appeal challenges the result below upon three special contentions:

1. The appellee was shown to have been guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law — or, if not, the jury’s quoted answer to issue number XXIV was so against the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be plainly wrong — in that his own testimony demonstrated that he failed to keep a proper lookout for the approach of the street car, which failure proximately caused the collision.-

2. The defense that the sole proximate cause of the collision was the failure of the plaintiff to keep a proper lookout having been specially plead by the defendant and raised by the evidence, the court erred in refusing

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51 S.W.2d 648, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-electric-co-v-settle-texapp-1932.