Louisville & Nashville R. R. v. Young

53 So. 213, 168 Ala. 551, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 552
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 19, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 53 So. 213 (Louisville & Nashville R. R. v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Louisville & Nashville R. R. v. Young, 53 So. 213, 168 Ala. 551, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 552 (Ala. 1910).

Opinion

SIMPSON, J.

This is an action by the appellee against the appellant for damages for the death of her intestate, Joe LaAvrence, claimed to have been caused by his being struck by a moving engine of the defendant. The case has been in this court twice heretofore.—L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Banks, Adm’r, 132 Ala. 471, 31 South 573, and Same v. Young, 153 Ala. 232, 45 South. 238, 16 L. R. A, (N. S.) 301.

The plaintiff demanded a struck jury, and in ascertaining the qualifications of the jurors asked if they [560]*560were employees of the defendant, and, three of them answering that they were, the court, on motion of the plaintiff, excused them from service, to which action of .the court the defendant excepted and makes the action •of the court the first assignment of error insisted on.

It is laid down as a general proposition that: “The power of the court to reject jurors of its own motion is not confined to the enumerated grounds of challenge, or to cases where a refusal to sustain a challenge would be error; but may be exercised for any cause which the court, in its discretion, deems sufficient to render the juror unfit to serve.”—24 Cyc. 313.

This court has said that “the right of the parties to a. jury free from bias or interest is not lost, nor subjected to chance or peril, because one party, in the exercise of a legal right, * * * demands a struck jury.”—Dothard v. Denson, 72 Ala. 541, 543. Also that “the statute prescribing the cases for which a person, drawn and proposed as a juror, may be challenged, was not intended to take away from the court the discretionary power to excuse any person who appears to the court to be unfit to serve on the jury,” though this power “should be exercised consistently with the right of the accused to have a jury selected from the list served on him, as far as practicable. There must be a cause.”—Long v. State, 86 Ala. 36, 40, 5 South. 443; Scott v. State, 133 Ala. 112, 115, 32 South. 623; Williams v. State, 144 Ala. 14, 17, 40 South. 405. The Long Case and the Scott Case are based upon general principles, while the Williams Case rests upon section 5020 of the Code of 1896.

Section 7280 of the Code of 1907 authorizes the court to excuse from service any person “if he is disqualified or exempt, or for any other reasonable cause, to be determined by the court.” It is true that- this section appears in the Criminal Code, but it has been applied by [561]*561this court in civil cases.—Calhoun County v. Watson, 152 Ala. 554, 560, 44 South. 702, 704.

In the last-cited case this court said: “The purpose of the law is to afford a fair and impartial trial to all litigants, which can only be accomplished by absolutely unbiased juries, and trial judges cannot be too zealous in ridding the jury of men whose interest and environment is calculated to sway them in the slightest degree. The fact that the jurors excused by the court were employed by the commissioners may be a slight incentive for bias, yet it Avas the action of the commissioners that was being assailed, by this suit, and we think the action of the court Avas authorized by section 5020 of the Code of 1896.” And in the case of Stennett v. City of Bessemer, 154 Ala. 637, 45 South. 890, the court was justified in excusing a juror aaTlo had a similar case against the defendant, because “the law implies bias.”

In the case of Calhoun v. Hannan & Michael, 87 Ala. 277, 284, 6 South. 291, 292, this court declined to put the loAver court in error for refusing to alloAV a challenge of a juror, because he was an employee of another party Avho had a similar suit in court; the court saying: “The facts shoAvn were sufficient to support a challenge for favor, the effect of which is to require an investigation by the court into the question whether the juror is biased in point of fact; but, of themselves, they are not sufficient to show this, or to raise a disqualifying presumption of bias.”

It Avill be noticed that in the case just cited the juror was not an employee of the defendant (see statement of case, at page 279 of 87 Ala., at page 291 of 6 South.), also that the court was sustaining, and not reversing, the discretionary action of the trial court.

There was no error in the action of the court in excusing said jurors.

[562]*562The court erred in allowing the question to and answer of the witness Worthington, as to the customary traveling by people on the track at the place where the injury occurred. This was irrelevant to the issues in this case, and has been heretofore condemned by this court.—M. & C. R. R. Co. v. Womack, Adm'r, 84 Ala. 149, 150, 4 South. 618; Glass v. M. & C. R. R. Co., 94 Ala. 581, 586, 10 South. 215.

The witness Frazier testified, on redirect examination, that: “It don’t take both hands to manipulate the reverse lever, unless it is unusually hard. One grasp of the hand will work both; that is, unfasten and move it. I don’t think the lever could be handled quicker with both hands than one, on this particular engine. Both hands applied to some things. You could handle it quicker; but, if the lever works like that lever works* he could handle it with one hand as quick as with both. I could handle it just as quick with one hand as with both.”

In view of this explicit description by the witness, the jury could not be misled by the alloAvance of the further question to the witness: “Suppose it was hard to handle, would the use of both hands assist him?” And the answer to it: “If it was hard to handle, of course two hands could handle it better than one.”

Consequently, if the overruling of the objection to the question, and of the motion to exclude the answer, was error, it was without injury. At most it Avas only a repetition of what had already been testified to.

There was no error in overruling the objection to the question to the witness Roberta Young: “H'e left children, did he?” When this case was first before this court, the text of the opinion is made to state that there was error in this question (L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Banks, Adm'r, 132 Ala. 489, 31 South. 573); but the page of [563]*563“errata” in that volume shows that this should read: “There was no error.” See, also, Ala. Min. R. Co. v. Jones, Adm'r, 114 Ala. 519, 532, 21 South. 507, 62 Am. St. Rep. 121.

When the case just cited was before this court, at a subsequent term, it was held only that “that was not legitimate occasion to show the ages of his minor children.”—Ala. Min. R. Co. v. Jones, Adm'r, 121 Ala. 113, 119, 25 South. 814, 816.

There was no error in allowing the hypothetical question to the witness Bonham. The hypotheses in the-question correspond with the description of the engine by the witness McDermott.

Under the facts of this case,- charge 3, requested by the plaintiff, and given, may have been misleading or confusing; yet there was no reversible error in giving it.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McWhorter v. State
781 So. 2d 257 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1999)
Cooper v. Magic City Trucking Service, Inc.
264 So. 2d 146 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1972)
Carter v. Beasley
228 So. 2d 770 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1969)
Foster & Creighton Co. v. St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co.
88 So. 2d 825 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1956)
Lindsey v. Barton
70 So. 2d 633 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1954)
Hughes v. Merchants Nat. Bank of Mobile
53 So. 2d 386 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1951)
Gholston v. State
130 So. 69 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1930)
Mobile O. R. Co. v. Williams
129 So. 60 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1930)
Turbeville v. Mobile Light R. Co.
127 So. 519 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1930)
Smith v. Louisville N. R. Co.
123 So. 57 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1929)
Adalex Const. Co. v. Atkins
106 So. 338 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1925)
Aiken v. McMillan
106 So. 150 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1925)
City of Birmingham v. Lane
97 So. 728 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1923)
Leith v. State
90 So. 687 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1921)
Catanzano v. Jackson
73 So. 510 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1916)
Sovereign Camp W. O. W. v. Ward
71 So. 404 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1916)
Cobb & Marston v. McKenzie
60 So. 943 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1913)
Birmingham R. L. & P. Co. v. Saxon
59 So. 584 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 So. 213, 168 Ala. 551, 1910 Ala. LEXIS 552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louisville-nashville-r-r-v-young-ala-1910.