J. Rosenbaum Grain Co. v. Mitchell

142 S.W. 121, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 39
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 7, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 142 S.W. 121 (J. Rosenbaum Grain Co. v. Mitchell) 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
J. Rosenbaum Grain Co. v. Mitchell, 142 S.W. 121, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 39 (Tex. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinions

WILLSON, C. J.

(after stating the facts as above).

[1,2] Appellant requested the court to instruct the jury to return a verdict in its favor. The refusal of the request is complained of as error. In support of its complaint, appellant insists that, taking the view most favorable to appellee warranted by the testimony, he was a mere licensee while on its premises, and therefore that the only duty it owed to him was to refrain from intentionally injuring him while he was thereon, or, if it discovered him to be in a place of danger on account of cars moving from the elevator south on track 5, to use ordinary care to so manage such cars as to avoid injuring him. We think the testimony warranted a finding that appellee was not a mere licensee while engaged in inspecting and making light repairs of cars on track 5. It was shown that the railway company kept the track in repair for the operation of its cars and engines thereon, and not only was authorized, but was required, by the arrangement existing between it and appellant, to go on the track with its switch engines for the purpose of placing thereon cars of grain consigned to appellant, and for the purpose of removing such cars after they had been unloaded by appellant. It might very well be said, if there was nothing in the record showing that such a right had never been exercised by the railway company, that a right in it to inspect cars and make light repairs thereof while on the track should be implied from the duty it had assumed, for appellant’s benefit as well as its own, it may be observed, of removing cars, when unloaded, from the track; for, obviously, both the railway company and appellant, when they entéred into the arrangement which bound the former to remove unloaded cars from the track, must have contemplated that it might become absolutely necessary to inspect and repair cars before they could be removed. But it appears from the record that the railway company during a long period of time had exercised such a right, and that its inspectors, almost daily, without objection on the part of appellant, had inspected and made light repairs of cars on that track; and, further, that appellant’s superintendent in charge of the work at its elevator knew of the practice, at least so far as the inspecting of the cars was concerned. From such circumstances a jury would be warranted in finding that appellee was not a bare licensee while on appellant’s premises engaged in repairing the car, but that *124 he was there lawfully, In the discharge of a duty he owed to the railway company, the performance of which would inure to the benefit of appellant, also, and which it had agreed might be performed there. If appellee was rightfully upon appellant’s premises, it owed him the duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid injuring him while he was engaged in repairing the car. The testimony was sufficient, we think, to support a finding that it did not use such care. The jury might have inferred from the opportunity the testimony showed appellant to have had to know of it that it did know, not only that the railway company’s employes inspected empty cars on the track, but that they also made light repairs thereof while on the track. And, if such an inference was not permissible, we nevertheless would not be prepared to say that the testimony was not sufficient to support a finding of negligence on its part; for, if appellant did not know and should not be chargeable with knowledge of the fact that such repairs were habitually made by the railway company’s employes on the track, it did know, as testified to by its superintendent, that the railway company’s employes inspected cars while on the track in question. It is a matter of common knowledge that in inspecting railway cars persons engaged in that duty go between and under the cars they are inspecting, and so place themselves in positions of danger from collisions between cars they are inspecting and other cars which may be moved on the track. The testimony was uncontradicted that appellant permitted the colliding cars to move down from the elevator and strike the car appellee was under with great force, without doing anything to warn employes of the railway company who might be engaged in inspecting same of danger they might be in from the collision it knew would occur. Whether a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances would have acted as it did we think was a question for a jury, and not for the court, to determine.

[3, 4] In support of its complaint, appellant further insists that its negligence, if any, was a remote cause, arid that negligence on the part of one Jones, who was associated with appellee in the work of inspecting and repairing the cars, was the proximate cause of the injury to appellee. Appellee as a witness testified as follows: “I do not know exactly where Jones was, but he jumped out on the other side of the car, and I supposed he was over there. I wanted him to be looking out for me for anything above that might happen to come down. He should have been out there on the lookout for me. He was supposed to be. I depended on him to be out there watching for me. I expected, if any car would drop down there, he would notify me, and that is what I depended upon. When I went in a dangerous place under a car, I depended on Jones giving me notice if any cars were dropped out to come down there. I expected him to notify me. He did not do so. I did not hear him do so. He was not standing there doing as he should have done, I don’t suppose, nor did he claim to have been. I knew that was a dangerous place to go under. As to knowing or not that the rules required me to keep somebody looking out, I will say there was not anything in the rules to that effect. We did. that among ourselves. We adopted that rule among ourselves. We had that rule among ourselves, that, if I went under a car, Jones should keep watch and should notify me. I did not know that these cars were frequently coming down there from the Rosenbaum elevator any more than Jones told me they were on No. 5. Jones had told me they did on No. 5. He told me they came down on No. 5. I suppose they used No. 5 for an unloading track for the elevator. I don’t think they were unloading 40 to 70 cars a day there on that track. I do not think so, because I do not think they handled that many cars. Jones did not tell me how many were coming down there. I had never seen any come down on No. 5, but I had on No. 6 and No. 4. I had not been at work there a great deal. * * * Probably I would not have gone under there if I had not had Jones there to keep a watchout for me. I did depend upon Jones. I don’t know as it was Jones’ fault. I could not say. 1-Ie didn’t tell me. I was expecting him to tell me; but I could not say, if I depended upon him, that his failure to tell me was the occasion of my getting hurt. I was expecting Jones to holler if anything came, and, if he had hollered, I would have got out. I did not hear him holler, and did not get out. I did not hear any one holler. I depended on Jones to holler or speak to me if any danger came, but I do not know as his failure to holler was the reason I did not get out. I could not say exactly what was the reason. I would have been out in about a minute, anyway. I just had about a minute’s work under there.” Jones testified that at the time the collision occurred he was at work on the inside of a car north of and adjoining the one appellee was under.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 S.W. 121, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-rosenbaum-grain-co-v-mitchell-texapp-1911.