International & Great Northern Railroad v. Hood

118 S.W. 1119, 55 Tex. Civ. App. 334, 1909 Tex. App. LEXIS 345
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 17, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 118 S.W. 1119 (International & Great Northern Railroad v. Hood) 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 Railroad v. Hood, 118 S.W. 1119, 55 Tex. Civ. App. 334, 1909 Tex. App. LEXIS 345 (Tex. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

RAINEY, Chief Justice

(on motion for rehearing by appellant).— TJpon a reconsideration of this case we have reached the conclusion that we erred in our former disposition of the case in holding that the statement of facts could not be considered as it was copied in the transcript and was not the original. When the statement of facts is copied in the record, instead of having the original sent up, unless objection is made the irregularity will be considered waived and the said statement -will be considered in deciding the case. Royal Ins. Co. v. Texas & G. Ry. Co., 102 Texas, 306.

There was a waiver in this case by the appellee. He prepared a brief contesting appellant’s right to a reversal of the judgment, had it printed and filed in the case, and raised no objection to the consideration of the statement of facts copied in the record until the day before the cause was submitted, when he filed a supplemental brief objecting to the consideration of said statement of facts. If it could be said that the briefing of the case by appellee was not a waiver, the failure to file an objection until the day before submission was too late. Buie 8 for the Courts of Civil Appeals reads: "All motions relating to informalities in the manner of bringing a case into court shall be filed and entered by the clerk on the motion docket at least forty-eight hours before 10 o’clock a. m. of the day on which the cause is set for a hearing, under section 23 of the Act entitled ‘An act to organize the Courts of Civil Appeals, to define their jurisdiction and powers, and to prescribe the mode of procedure therein,’ approved April 13, 1892; otherwise the objection shall be considered as waived if it can_ be waived by the party;- such filing and docketing will be sufficient notice of the motion.”

Appellee’s supplemental brief was but a motion to strike out the statement of facts for being a copy and not the original, a mere informality that could be waived. The appellee not having filed his motion forty-eight hours before ten o’clock a. m. of the day on which the cause was submitted, comes too late, and the motion for rehearing is granted, and the cause will be considered on its merits.

Appellee’s cause of action as alleged, in substance, is that his wife and daughter boarded the appellant’s train at Mertens, Hill County, holding tickets entitling them to transportation to Leroy, McLennan County, and return. After visiting in the country near Leroy for a few days, they left the country for Leroy to return home. Upon reaching Leroy in their haste they boarded the train, leaving their pocketbook containing the tickets in the wagon in which they had gone to Leroy. After the train pulled out the conductor came around collecting tickets and when he reached them they told him of having accidentally forgotten their tickets and of having left them on the seat of the wagon and, having no money to pay their fare, they requested the conductor to stop the train, which had only run a short distance and was moving slowly, that they might get off and get their tickets, which he declined to do in a gruff, crabbed and insulting manner, informing them that he was going to put them off the train, and then left them. After some little time had elapsed and the train *336 had gotten under headway, he returned and stopped the train and put them off in a deep cut, where there was a deep ditch, the distance from the lowest step to the bottom of the ditch being about five feet. That the negro porter placed a foot stool for them which turned over and was not straightened. In getting off, by reason of the distance they had to step they were caused to expose their lower limbs, which was very humiliating. This point was about one and one-half miles from the station, which they had to walk in returning. Mrs. Hood was in bad health. It was a raw, disagreeable day, etc. That the shock and walk made her sick, and she suffered humiliation in consequence of the acts of the conductor.

There was evidence introduced by plaintiff in support of his allegations.

The appellant introduced contradictory testimony. The conductor testified: “I remember the occasion of Mrs. Hood and daughter getting on my train at Leroy in March, 1907. I helped them on the train myself. After getting on the train I gave the signal to the engineer to go ahead and I walked from the front car into the second car and as I came to them and asked for tickets, the older one of the ladies commenced searching for her ticket. I stood right by her side in the aisle and after she had searched a while she said, ‘I left my purse and ticket on the seat of the wagon/ I said, ‘Madam, what do you want to do about it?’ She says, ‘Can’t you stop and let me get off?’ I said, ‘Yes, madam,’ and I turned round and pulled the signal whistle and the train stopped. The porter came in and got the stool and put it down on the ground, and put his foot on it to hold it, and we helped them off.” There was also testimony tending to contradict the plaintiffs as to the distance the train stopped from Leroy and as to the assistance they received in alighting from the train.

The court refused to give a special charge requested by appellant, which is assigned as error, as follows: “If you believe from the evidence in this case that at or about the place where plaintiff’s wife and daughter disembarked from said train, that plaintiff’s wife requested the conductor to let them off at said place, and that in putting them off of said train the conductor used ordinary care (that is, such care as an ordinarily prudent person would exercise under such circumstances) then you are instructed that the plaintiff can not recover in this case.”

The refusal of this charge was error. It presented a theory of appellant’s defense which was raised by the evidence and which was not embraced in the court’s charge.

All the assignments have been considered, but none show cause for reversal, other than the one above mentioned.

The judgment is reversed and cause remanded.

ON MOTION EOR REHEARING BY APPELLEE.

On a former day of this term we reversed and remanded this case on the ground that the court refused to give a special charge requested by appellant. In the motion for rehearing our attention is called to the fact that said charge was sufficiently covered by the main charge *337 of the court. This being so our decision was error. The paragraph of the court’s charge relating to this issue reads: “If the conductor stopped the train on Mrs. Hood’s request as soon as he might with the use of ordinary diligence, plaintiff is not entitled to recover.” This paragraph of the charge we think fully and concisely covers the requested instruction, and appellant has no cause for complaint on this score.

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Bluebook (online)
118 S.W. 1119, 55 Tex. Civ. App. 334, 1909 Tex. App. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-great-northern-railroad-v-hood-texapp-1909.