Jinks v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad

369 S.W.2d 784, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 2192
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 19, 1963
DocketNo. 16226
StatusPublished

This text of 369 S.W.2d 784 (Jinks v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad) 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
Jinks v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, 369 S.W.2d 784, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 2192 (Tex. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

DIXON, Chief Justice.

Suit for damages arising out of a truck-train collision was instituted by William H. Dedmon, the truck driver, and R. N. Na-bors, alleged to be the owner of the truck, against Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, hereinafter called Railroad.

In addition to its answer Railroad filed a counterclaim and cross-action against Na-bors and B. M. Jinks, impleading the last named party as a joint owner of the truck along with Nabors, the two doing business under the name of J. & N. Construction Company.

A Jury returned a verdict favorable to Railroad in the main suit and also on the counterclaim and cross-action. A judgment for $8,464.56 was rendered in favor of Railroad against Jinks and Nabors, the judgment also providing that Dedmon and Nabors take nothing in their suit against Railroad. Only Jinks and Nabors have appealed.

In their first point on appeal appellants charge that there was no evidence to support the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 3 to the effect that the engineer on the train did not fail to keep a proper lookout.

The collision occurred about half way between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. The train was traveling east towards Dallas. The truck was traveling south along a dirt road towards a gravel pit leased by appellants.

[786]*786About 100 feet north of the track was an east-west line of trees paralleling the track. There is testimony that at a point about 125 feet north of the tracks the visibility to the west (from which direction the train was coming) for the truck driver was between 700 and 800 feet. There is testimony that the truck could first be seen from the train when the truck emerged from behind the line of trees about 100 feet north of the tracks.

The train was traveling about 70 miles per hour, which was within the speed limit at that point. The truck according to Ded-mon himself, the driver, was traveling about 8 or 10 miles per hour, and could have been stopped within 2 or 3 feet. He did not stop.

Clymer, the fireman on the train, estimated that the train was about 650 feet from the crossing when he and the engineer first saw the truck as it came from behind the trees. We quote part of Clymer’s testimony :

“A Well, he came out from behind the trees and, oh, I would say about 25 feet from the crossing. It looked like he slowed just a little, and I thought he was going to- stop, but he didn’t, he pulled up on the crossing.
“A When he came out from behind the trees I started to call the attention of the engineer to the fact that there was a truck coming and he was looking at it, at the truck, and when he slowed, and then after, when he was about, oh, I guess he was about, oh,. I don’t know, some six, eight, maybe ten feet off the crossing I saw that, it finally registered on me that he wasn’t going to stop so I hollered at the engineer that he was going to try to make it and the engineer already had his hand on the brake, at the same time that I hollered, well, he was watching him too, and we both decided about the same time that he was going to try to make it and he pulled the brake around and made a brake application on the train.
“Q (By Mr. Gracey) Mr. Clymer, will you tell the jury whether or not that truck ever stopped as it approached this crossing?
“A No, it never stopped.
“Q Did it slow down some after you first saw him?
“A Yes, it slowed down just a little bit.
“Q Was he going at a speed where he could have stopped if he had ever tried?
“A I thought so.
“Q Will you tell the jury what you were doing about the time just prior to the impact occurring?
“A I was trying to figure some way out.
“Q Can you tell the jury whether at the time you approached this crossing, when you first realized that there was a possibility that the man might not stop, tell the jury what that engineer was doing from there on in?
“A At the time that it was apparent that, he was not going to stop ?
“Q Yes, sir.
“A He was blowing the whistle and making brake application.
“Q Was the headlight going?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q Was the engineer watching the truck driver?
“A Yes, sir.”

There is also evidence in the record that the train could not have been stopped or even appreciably slowed down within the distance separating the train and the cross[787]*787ing at the time the truck first became visible from the train.

The burden of proof, or rather the “burden of persuasion”, to use Professor Hodges’ phrase,1 (footnote) was on appellants. There was ample evidence to support the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 3. Certainly we cannot say that there was no evidence to support the answer. Appellants’ first point is overruled.

In their second point on appeal appellants complain of the court’s refusal to submit Special Issues Nos. 10, 10-A and 10-B which inquired (10) whether Railroad failed to have a signal light burning at the intersection; (10-A) if so, whether such failure was negligence, and (10-B) a proximate cause of the collision.

We see no error in the court’s refusal- to submit the issues. The road along which appellants’ truck was traveling extended south of the railroad tracks about 600 yards to appellants’ gravel pit, where it came to a dead end. It extended north from the tracks about a half mile to Pipe Line Road. It was a dirt road with a little gravel on it here and there, a one lane road providing for the passage of only one vehicle at a time. Apparently the road did not even have a name. About 100 feet south of the tracks the road was barred by a gate with a chain and four locks.

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Bluebook (online)
369 S.W.2d 784, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 2192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jinks-v-chicago-rock-island-pacific-railroad-texapp-1963.