International-Great Northern R. v. Lucas

70 S.W.2d 226
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 8, 1934
DocketNo. 4387.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 70 S.W.2d 226 (International-Great Northern R. v. Lucas) 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
International-Great Northern R. v. Lucas, 70 S.W.2d 226 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

*227 JOHNSON, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court of Cherokee county rendered against appellant, International-Great Northern Railroad^ Company, defendant in the trial court, in favor of appellees, surviving wife and children of Luke ■ L. Lucas, deceased, plaintiffs in the trial court, awarding plaintiffs damages because of injuries to and death of Luke L. Lucas resulting from alleged negligence of the defendant, its agents, servants and employees.

At the time of his death, Luke L. Lucas was a member of the partnership of Lucas & Lucas, composed of Luke L. Lucas and G. E. Lucas, which partnership was under written contract with appellant engaged in the work of building, servicing, and draining roadbeds for the construction of switches and spur tracks for defendant. By the terms of this contract, and as a part of the consideration for the work to be done, appellant contracted to and did furnish the partnership transportation over its railroad lines for the necessary persons, tools, outfits, supplies (except commissary supplies and feed for teams), and material required for and used solely in the performance of the work covered by the agreement, which transportation to be used only ¡by persons and for the purposes for which the same was furnished; and the appellant had issued to Luke L. Lucas an annual pass over its railroad lines.

The work was at different points on appellant’s railroad lines running through the territory known as the East Texas oil field. Luke L. Lucas was killed as the result of a head-on collision between two motorcars belonging to the appellant. The collision occurred at a sharp curve on appellant’s line, about seven miles south of Kilgore, at about 6:10 p. m., Eebruary 4, 1931. Luke L. Lucas was returning to Kilgore from the work in which he had been engaged at points south of Kil-gore. . The motorcar on which he was riding was in charge of and being operated by, appellant’s agent, L. M. Elledge, an assistant engineer of appellant, and who had for appellant during the day been engaged in surveying some spur track locations and pointing out to Luke L. Lucas the grading work desired by appellant to be done thereon by Lucas & Lucas under their contract. The other motorcar was being operated by Zay Gardner, who, under contract with appellant, was laying the rail for appellant on its switch and spur track beds built by Lucas & Lucas. The Zay Gardner contract for laying the rail was similar in material respects to the contract under which Lucas & Lucas were building the roadbeds; appellant agreed to furnish Gardner transportation; they were independent contractors. This motorcar was by appellant furnished Gardner in transporting materials and his rail-laying crew to and from work; the appellant furnishing Gardner information for its movements through its local agents and dispatchers giving him a “line-up” on the location and movement of other cars and trains on appellant’s lines, and at the time of the collision this motorcar was transporting Zay Gardner’s rail-laying crew from work near Kilgore to Gardner’s headquarters south of Kilgore.

Appellees alleged generally that the collision of the two motorcars and the injuries to, and the resulting death of, Luke L. Lucas, was the direct and proximate result of the negligence of the appellant, its agents, servants and employees.

The appellant in its answer specially pleaded, as a bar to appellees’ right to recover, certain provisions of its contract with the partnership of Lucas & Lucas. On the indemnity feature of the contract, the appellant pleaded a cross-action seeking to recover over against appellees and against G. E. Lucas, the surviving member of the partnership of Lucas & Lucas, for such amount, if any, recovered by appellees against appellant. Appellant further pleaded that Luke L. Lucas was guilty of contributory negligence in the following respects: (1) That Luke L. Lucas was riding on the motorcar with his back in the direction the motorcar was moving and his face turned in the opposite direction; (2) that he was riding on said ear in such position that he could not, without turning his head, see another car approaching from an opposite direction ; (3) in not, in' fact, seeing the other motor approaching in time to avoid the collision ; (4) in failing to remove himself from the motorcar immediately prior to the collision ; (5) and that he failed to keep a lookout along the track ahead of the motorcar on which he was riding.

The appellant further pleaded that Luke L. Lucas and L. M. Elledge, the agent of appellant who was operating the motorcar on which Luke L. Lucas was riding at the time of the collision, were engaged in a joint enterprise, by reason of which the negligence, if any, of the agent of appellant, was imputed to the deceased, Luke L. Lucas.

The court sustained appellees’ exceptions to appellant’s plea in bar and cross-action based upon the contract, and to appellant’s plea of joint enterprise. The court also sustained the plea of misjoinder of G. E. Lucas,'and *228 dismissed him from the suit. To which rulings of the court appellant duly excepted.

The case was tried to a jury, and in answer to special issues the jury found:

“1. That the collision between the motor cars was due to the negligence of the agents, servants and employees of the defendant in charge of the operation thereof, as the term ‘agents’ was defined hy the court.
“2. That such negligence was a proximate cause of the injuries to and death of Luke L. Lucas.
“3. That Luke L. Lucas was at the time of his death a ‘passenger’ on the motor car upon which he was riding, as the term ‘passenger’ was defined by the court.
“4. That Luke L. Lucas was not negligent in occupying the position upon the motor cat which he was occupying at the time of the collision.
“5. That Luke L. Lucas was not guilty of negligence in failing to remove himself from the motor car prior to the collision.
“6. That Luke L. Luca's on the occasion in question exercised that degree of care in relation to keeping a reasonable lookout along the track that an ordinarily prudent person would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances.
“7. That Luke L. Lucas did not have an equal right (express or implied) with the defendant’s agent and employee operating the motor car upon which Lucas was riding to supervise, direct and control the operation of the motor car at the time of the collision.
“8. That the plaintiffs’ damages were in the sum of $26,044.00.”

Judgment -was accordingly entered for ap-pellees, and appellant has appealed. The findings of the jury are not without support in the evidence, and we adopt them as the facts.

Appellant’s first ten, and No. 25, propositions bring into consideration the action of the trial court in denying its plea in bar and cross-action based upon the contract between appellant and the partnership of Lucas & Lucas, the provisions of which relevant to the questions presented are found in sections 3, 4, and 5 of the contract.

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Related

Mitchell's, Inc. v. Friedman
303 S.W.2d 775 (Texas Supreme Court, 1957)
International-Great Northern R. Co. v. Lucas
123 S.W.2d 760 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
International-Great Northern Railroad v. Lucas
99 S.W.2d 297 (Texas Supreme Court, 1936)
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99 S.W.2d 297 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
70 S.W.2d 226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-great-northern-r-v-lucas-texapp-1934.