Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Leslie

167 S.W. 83, 112 Ark. 305, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 276
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 6, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 167 S.W. 83 (Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Leslie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Leslie, 167 S.W. 83, 112 Ark. 305, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 276 (Ark. 1914).

Opinion

Wood, J.,

(after stating the facts). 1. The court did not err in denying the petition for removal to the Federal court. St. Louis & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Conarty, 106 Ark. 421; Kansas City So. Ry. Co. v. Cook, 100 Ark. 467.

2. The complaint alleged that the appellant was negligent in not providing ladders and grab-irons on the ends of the cars to enable the brakemen to pass safely from one car to the other, and that appellant was negligent in the manner of making up its train by placing the tank car next to a high car, and that appellant was negligent in that its engineer handled his engine in such manner as to cause the train to unnecessarily and violently lurch and jerk, and that the negligence in failing to provide necessary hand-holds, ladders or other appliances to enable the brakemen to pass safely from one car to the other, concurring with the alleged negligence of the engineer, caused the injury to Old, of which the appellee complained. These allegations were sufficient to state a cause of action against appellant.

The court did not err, therefore, in overruling appellant’s motions to strike, and to make more definite and certain, and in overruling the demurrer. While some portions of the complaint were redundant and the pleader entered into unnecessary detail of description, the complaint for that reason was not defective, and there was no prejudicial error in refusing to strike out such unnecessary allegations.

It is not in best form to enter into more spécific detail in stating a cause of action than is necessary to advise the defendant of the particular grounds upon which the complainant seeks to hold him liable. These grounds should be stated with as much definiteness and certainty as possible, but more specific details are not required and are matters to be developed by the testimony. See Little Rock & Fort Smith Ry. Co. v. Smith, 66 Ark. 278.

3. The appellant contends that the amended complaint was filed within less than ten days before the beginning of the term of court, and that the amended complaint stated new causes of action, which entitled appellant to a continuance. The alleged new causes of action are: First, “that there were no grab-irons or handholds on the end of the oil car or tank car immediately in front of the refrigerator car, or any other appliances thereon, to enable brakemen, in passing from the rear car to the oil or tank car to hold to and steady himself while making said passagesecond, “that the engineer of said defendant was negligent on the occasion of plaintiff’s injury in permitting his air to become out of order, or in carelessly manipulating his air in such manner that said train was caused to jerk violently and unusually, which jerking contributed to the injury of plaintiff’s deceased, as aforesaid.”

On account of the alleged new cause of action in regard to the tank car the appellant set forth that “it was impossible for the defendant to get a fair trial herein without having sufficient time to fully investigate the history especially of said tank car. * * * It is absolutely necessary for a fair trial herein that defendant have time enough to get thé complete history of each tank car in said train so as to prepare to meet the plaintiff’s proof on the subject.” The appellant further set forth that “defendant can not safely go to trial without the full history of each refrigerator car in controversy, so as to enable the defendant to ascertain whether or not the cars were in service before July, 1911.”

There was no prejudicial error in overruling the motion for a continuance on these grounds, for, at the trial, it was shown, without objection, that the defendant had made investigation and was familiar with the history of both of the S. F. R. D. cars in controversy, and also the tank car. It was shown, without objection, by witnesses who were familiar with the history of these cars, that they were in the service prior to July, 1911, and that they had not been sent to the shop for general repairs since that date. It thus appears that at the trial the appellant had the benefit of the testimony which, in the motion for continuance, it had asked time to enable it to procure.

In regard to the alleged negligence of the engineer in permitting his air to become out of order, appellant contended that it should have had an opportunity “to look into the air on each of the fifty-one cars in the train, and that it would require time to do so. ’ ’

The original complaint alleged that “the air on the train failed to work properly and the train could not therefore be handled or controlled properly,” and that “because of the defective condition of the air as aforesaid said train began jerking and swaying violently, and so continued until plaintiff was injured.”

It will thus be seen that these allegations of negligence as to the engineer set up in the amended complaint did not introduce any new or original cause of action, but were only a different method of stating a cause of action that had already been set forth. Furthermore, it" was surplusage for the pleader to allege the specific causes or conditions that caused the violent and unusual jerking. It was entirely sufficient to have alleged that the engineer of appellant was negligent in causing a violent and unusual jerking of the train which caused and contributed to the injury of the plaintiff, without setting forth the particular defects or conditions that caused such jerking. These were matters to be developed by the testimony, and the appellant had sufficient notice under the general allegations of negligence caused by a violent and unusual jerking of the train to require it to make all investigation it deemed necessary to meet such allegation.

4. Appellant urges that the court erred in permitting members of the train crew to testify that they had some trouble with the air appliances on the train. Appellant contends that this testimony was incompetent, and also that it was prejudicial for the reason that it authorized the jury t.o conjecture that it had something to do with the alleged jerking of the train at the time of the injury.

Appellant says that the same witnesses who testified that there was trouble with the air on certain cars of the train before the same reached Page also showed that the cars in which there was a defective condition as to the air were set out of^the train before it arrived at Page, and therefore the defective condition in those cars could not have been competent to show that the jerking of the train at the time of the injury was caused by a defect in the air in these cars. If, as counsel say,, “the witnesses who testified to the trouble testified that the cars were set out on account of the trouble, and that there was no trouble at Page,” then the testimony could not be prejudicial to, appellant for the reason that the jury could not have concluded that those cars were in the train at the time of the injury. But, conceding that there was testimony to the effect that the air on some of the cars in the train was defective, that the testimony was competent at the time it was offered as tending to show that this defective condition caused the jerking of the train, if the testimony was afterward rendered incompetent because it was shown that these cars were removed before the injury occurred, then appellant, after this testimony was introduced, should have moved to exclude the testimony after its incompetency had thus been made to appear.

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Bluebook (online)
167 S.W. 83, 112 Ark. 305, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kansas-city-southern-railway-co-v-leslie-ark-1914.