Kerrville Bus Co. v. Williams

206 S.W.2d 262, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1261
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 13, 1947
DocketNo. 11895
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 206 S.W.2d 262 (Kerrville Bus Co. v. Williams) 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
Kerrville Bus Co. v. Williams, 206 S.W.2d 262, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1261 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This action was brought by appellee, Annie Lee Williams, against Kerrville Bus Company, Inc., to recover damages alleged to have been sustained as a result of the negligence on the part of the agent and employee of appellant bus company in: Accepting a passenger aboard its bus while he was in a visibly intoxicated condition and in failing to eject him from the bus after the driver of the bus discovered that the person was intoxicated; in failing to exercise proper control of said intoxicated person while he was a passenger on said bus, and in failing to take the necessary and reasonable steps to protect appellee from harm, insults, abuse, etc., at the hands of said intoxicated person; and in negligently entrusting the operation, management and control of said bus to a- driver who was careless, reckless, inexperienced, and unskilled in such matters.

Appellee alleged that she was traveling by bus from San Diego, California, to Houston, Texas, and that upon arrival at Pecos, Texas, she was transferred to appellant’s bus, then being operated by its driver, W. B. Deal. She alleged that a man by the name of Ted Sommers boarded the bus [264]*264at Pecos- and began drinking from a bottle of whiskey and became intoxicated and fell from his seat on several occasions; that on one occasion, in trying to raise himself from the floor, he violently grabbed appel-lee around the neck and choked her; that on another occasion he violently assaulted appellee, kicking her and striking her on her breast and her right side and the lower part of her back and legs; that the bus driver had actual knowledge of the fact that the drunken man was annoying, injuring and molesting her; that she sustained serious, painful, and permanent injuries as a direct and proximate result of the negligence and carelessness of the agents and employees of appellant in failing to protect her, and that she sustained injuries by being kicked by an intoxicated passenger on the bus, one Ted Sommers.

Appellant answered by a plea in which it alleged that the cause should be abated, because the plaintiff had failed to allege grounds warranting the prosecution of the suit by appellee in her individual capacity, and by a general denial.

The case was tried before a jury, who, in answer to special issues submitted found, in substance: That appellee had been abandoned by her husband prior to the filing of appellee’s original petition; that the bus driver knew that appellee was so molested by such passenger prior to the time she was kicked by him, and that he could reasonably have foreseen and anticipated that Sommers would, in reasonable probability, injure appellee in the manner in which she was alleged to have been injured, or in some similar manner. The jury found that the bus driver had failed to use ordinary care to prevent such injuries to appellee; that such failure was a proximate cause of the injuries, and that appellee had been damaged in the sum of $2000, the amount for which judgment was rendered in ap-pellee’s favor.

Appellant contends, that under the undisputed evidence, the incidents out of which this suit grew were not foreseeable to appellant’s bus driver prior to their occurrence, and that no act of omission or of commission could constitute negligence unless it was reasonably foreseeable to a man of ordinary prudence, that an injury such as that complained of would result therefrom.

At the time of the events complained of, and at the time of the trial of the case, appellee was a married woman. Her husband, Raymond Williams, who was not made a party of the suit, resided in San Diego, California. Appellee alleged that she was permanently separated from him, and that his whereabouts were unknown to her. She alleged that he had failed and neglected to join her or to assist her in the filing and prosecution of the suit. Raymond Williams filed an assignment of any interest he might have in this action prior to the trial.

In the case of Pacific Greyhound Lines v. Vermillion, Tex.Civ.App., 87 S.W.2d 312, error dismissed, the facts were similar in all material respects to those in the instant case. In that case a passenger who was seated upon the rear seat of a bus was stabbed in the side by a drunken negro passenger. A jury found that the driver of the bus had failed to use a high degree of care to ascertain the condition of the negro passenger, .and that his failure to do so was the proximate cause of the injury received by plaintiff. One Thousand Dollars was held to reasonably compensate plaintiff for the injury received by him. The bus company contended that the assault was so sudden that the injury could not reasonably have been foreseen and prevented by its bus driver, and that therefore no actual negligence was shown. The court held that if the assault might reasonably have been anticipated and prevented by the exercise of ordinary care on the part of the driver of the bus, then the driver’s failure to do so would be negligence. Citing Galveston, H. & S.A.R.Co. v. Bell, 110 Tex. 104, 216 S.W. 390; Schaff v. Bourland, Tex.Civ.App., 266 S.W. 843.

In passing upon the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant submission of the case to the jury, the court held that it must be borne in mind that appellant owed appellee a high degree of care, and that the evidence mu'st be viewed in the light most favorable to appellee, since every inference fairly deductible from the same [265]*265must be indulged in his favor. 'Citing 3 Tex.Jur., P. 1049, Sec. 741.

Continuing, the court held that the testimony was sufficient to support the view that the driver of the bus knew, or should have known, that the negro had become intoxicated and was disorderly, and that it was a matter of common knowledge that some men in such condition are frequently dangerous and prone to acts of unprovoked violence; that it was not necessary that the driver of the bus should have anticipated that the negro would certainly assault a fellow-passenger in order to show negligence on his part; that he might reasonably have anticipated that the intoxicated negro would cause trouble and have a fight with one of the passengers, and that the evidence was sufficient to carry the case to the jury upon the issue of the bus driver’s negligence. Citing the case of Galveston, H. & S. A. R. Co. v. Bell, 110 Tex. 104, 216 S.W. 300; Schaff v. Bourland, Tex.Civ.App., 266 S.W. 843.

In discussing the question of the liability of the carrier to its passengers for acts of fellow-passengers and third persons, it ⅛ said in 8 Tex.Jur., Page 794, 795, Sec. 580, that “Although the carrier is not liable as an insurer in this respect, a plain duty rests upon it to protect passengers, so far as is possible by the exercise of a high degree of care, from violence and insults of other passengers and strangers, and from dangers created by the wrongful acts of third persons. When injury therefrom should be anticipated, the carrier’s employees, in the performance of this duty, should take proper measures to protect passengers from the acts of intoxicated persons. * * * However, in accordance with settled rules, the carrier is responsible in this class of actions only when its servants, or some of them, were present at the time, or knew or should have known of or anticipated the improper language or conduct, and could have prevented the same or obviated any harmful results.” Citing Southern Traction Co., v. Coley, Tex.Civ.App,. 211 S.W. 265, error dismissed; Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Bell, Tex.Civ.App., 165 S.W. 1, affirmed in 110 Tex.

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Bluebook (online)
206 S.W.2d 262, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kerrville-bus-co-v-williams-texapp-1947.