Le Master v. Fort Worth Transit. Co.

142 S.W.2d 908, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 642
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 12, 1940
DocketNo. 14069
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 142 S.W.2d 908 (Le Master v. Fort Worth Transit. Co.) 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
Le Master v. Fort Worth Transit. Co., 142 S.W.2d 908, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 642 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

SPEER, Justice.

This is an appeal by C. E. LeMaster, plaintiff below, from a judgment entered non obstante veredicto on motion therefor by the defendants.

LeMaster instituted suit against Fort Worth Transit Company, a corporation, and A. F. Townsend, Receiver of Northern Texas Traction Company, for damages sustained by himself and wife when injured, as a result of LeMaster’s automobile coming in contact with the rear end of the defendants’ street bus, on March 5, 1938, at the intersection of Chambers Street and East Lancaster Avenue, in the City of Fort Worth. In this opinion we shall refer to LeMaster as plaintiff, and to the other parties as defendants.

Many alleged wrongful acts are set out in the petition, in which defendants are charged with negligence proximately causing plaintiff’s injuries, and by defendants’ answer, plaintiff is alleged to have been guilty of several acts of commission and omission, claimed to be negligence and a proximate cause of the accident and the resulting injuries. The pertinent allegations' of both are revealed by the issues submitted to the jury, as hereinafter referred to.

When taking of testimony was concluded, both parties moved for an instructed verdict ; the motions were overruled and many special issues were submitted to the jury.

The court defined in his charge “ordinary care”, “negligence”, “proximate cause”, “proper lookout” and “preponderance of evidence”. We shall have occasion later to refer to some of these charges in connection with issues submitted.

By the verdict, the jury found (1) that the operator stopped the bus on the occasion in question within the intersection of East Lancaster and Chambers Streets; (2) that the operator of the bus brought it to a sudden stop on the occasion in question, and that his act in bringing the bus to a sudden stop in the intersection mentioned constituted negligence and a proximate cause of the collision. Relating to the acts of plaintiff, which defendants charged as negligence proximately causing the accident, the jury, by its verdict, found, (a) plaintiff did not fail to keep a proper lookout, (b) plaintiff was not operating his car at a greater rate of speed than 20 miles per hour, immediately prior to the accident, (c) just prior to the accident plaintiff was not following the bus more closely than was reasonable and prudent, having due regard to the safety of said vehicle, (d) plaintiff was not operating his vehicle at a negligent rate of speed under the circumstances, (e) plaintiff’s car was provided with adequate brakes in good working order, (f) plaintiff’s failure to apply his brakes in time to slow down before running into the back end of the bus was not negligence, (g) LeMaster’s acts in permitting his car to come within ten feet of defendants’ bus while approaching and passing the street intersection was not a proximate cause or proximately contributing cause of the collision, (h) plaintiff’s failure to turn his car to the left and thereby avoid striking the back end of the bus was not negligence, (i) that he was not negligent in failing to slow down or stop his automobile before it strpck the back end of the bus, (j) plaintiff’s failure to use all the means at his command to stop or slow down his car before it struck the rear end of the bus was not negligence, (k) plaintiff’s failure to apply his brakes in time to slow his car down or stop it in time to avoid striking the bus did not constitute negligence on his part, (1) the plaintiff failed to have his car under control immediately prior to the collision, so as to prevent the accident, but that such failure did not amount to negligence.

After the verdict was received, defendants moved for judgment non obstante veredicto, under the provisions of Article 2211, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St. That article provides: “The judgments of the Court shall conform to the pleadings, the nature of the case proved and the verdict, if any, and shall be so framed as to give the party all the relief to which he may be entitled either in law or equity. Provided, that upon motion and reasonable notice the Court may render judgment non obstante veredicto if a directed verdict would have been proper, and provided further that the court may, upon like motion and notice, disregard any Special Issue Jury Finding that has no support in the evidence. * *”

Neither the nature of defendants’ motion, the notice nor service thereof is questioned by plaintiff, and the judgment [911]*911recites all the requisites necessary under the statute and its construction, as announced in Hines v. Parks, 128 Tex. 289, 96 S.W.2d 970, and Myers et al. v. Crenshaw et al., 134 Tex. 500, 137 S.W.2d 7. There is a recitation in the judgment in these words: * * And the court further finds and is of opinion that a directed verdict herein would have been proper and that a judgment non obstante veredicto should therefore be rendered herein in favor of the defendants.” The court follows the quoted finding with its order sustaining the motion and decreed that plaintiff take nothing by his action and that defendants go hence without day and recover all costs incurred.

The only theory upon which the judgment of the trial court can be sustained is that, as recited in his findings, a directed verdict for defendants should have been returned.

Based upon adequate assignments of error, plaintiff summarizes them into three propositions upon which he contends the court erred in sustaining the motion of defendants that an instructed verdict should have been directed. The substance of these propositions is: (1) The court should have entered judgment for plaintiff on the verdict, wherein it was found that defendants’ driver was negligent in suddenly stopping the bus in the intersection of the two streets, that the act was negligence and a proximate cause of the injury, and further, because the jury acquitted plaintiff of negligence proximately contributing to the injury; (2) since defendants maintained a designated stopping place for their buses at the junction of the north side of Lancaster and the east side of Chambers Streets, and plaintiff was familiar with its location, that the bus in question passed the regular stopping point and entered the intersection where it came to a sudden stop, the court was not warranted in finding that as a matter of law, plaintiff was guilty of negligence proximately causing or contributing to the injury, even if he was driving in close proximity to the rear of the bus, and did not use all the facilities at his command to slow down or stop his car before the accident happened. Because, it is asserted, there was nothing plaintiff could do to prevent the accident Under the surrounding circumstances, as they then existed; and (3) even though the jury found that plaintiff was violating a city ordinance at the time of the accident, rendering him negligent as a matter of law, it was necessary to have a finding by the jury that such negligence was a proximate or contributing cause, and the court was not warranted in holding that as a matter of law, the negligent act was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained.

Some presumption may be indulged that there was sufficient evidence adduced upon the trial to support all issues submitted by the court. This presumption had it origin in constructions given to the previous Article 2209, R.C.S.1925. The amendment, now Article 2211, supra, was enacted to give the trial court more authority than had previously existed under the law.

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Bluebook (online)
142 S.W.2d 908, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/le-master-v-fort-worth-transit-co-texapp-1940.