Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Edling

45 S.W. 406, 18 Tex. Civ. App. 171, 1898 Tex. App. LEXIS 43
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 15, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 45 S.W. 406 (Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Edling) 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
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Edling, 45 S.W. 406, 18 Tex. Civ. App. 171, 1898 Tex. App. LEXIS 43 (Tex. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

BOOKHOUT, Associate Justice.

The statement of the ease contained in appellant’s brief is substantially correct, and is adopted. This suit was instituted by appellee in the District Court of Ellis County, Texas, on May 8,,1895, to recover damages for alleged injuries charged to have been suffered in a collision of a train on appellant’s road with ■one on the road of the Fort Worth & Hew Orleans Railway Company, at an intersection of the two roads, near Waxahachie, Texas, on December *172 25, 1894. Appellee, a passenger on the Fort Worth & New Orleans Railway Company’s train, alleged the collision; that it was the result of negligence on the part of appellant’s employes, in failing to stop before reaching said intersection, and injuries to himself, consisting of a severe blow on the head, inflicting a gash and producing great pain and loss of blood, a painful wound on the left side and body, which cut the skin slightly, fractured two ribs, and caused internal injuries to the lungs, chest and heart of a serious and permanent character, resulting in inability to perform labor, and great mental and physical pain, etc., the injuries being alleged to be permanent.

Appellant answered by a general denial, and by a special plea, that if its train failed to stop before reaching this intersection, as alleged, it was not from negligence on its part, or of its employes; that its train was in charge of careful and prudent operatives, and was equipped with the latest and most approved appliances for stopping trains, which worked perfectly up to the time of the collision, and that if it then failed to stop, it was because its said appliances were wrongfully tampered with and disarranged by trespassers and wrongdoers, without the knowledge or consent of appellant or its agents and employes, and under circumstances rendering the discovery of such tampering impossible in time to have avoided the collision; and that if this was not true, then the failure to stop was the result of defects in its said appliances not discoverable hv the most careful examination, and which inventive genius had as yet been unable to overcome in the best, safest, and most approved appliances for stopping trains, and that its employes, did, in fact, use all the care, prudence, and caution possible under the circumstances to avoid and prevent such collision, wherefore it was claimed that the same, in so far as appellant was concerned, was an unavoidable accident.

A trial of the cause resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee for $3500, and appellant’s motion for new trial being overruled, this appeal is prosecuted.

Our conclusions of fact are: That on December 25, 1894, J. T. Ed-ling was a passenger on the train of the Fort Worth & New Orleans Railway Company, going from Houston, Texas, to Omaha, in the State of Nebraska; that the tracks of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company and the Fort Worth & New Orleans Railway Company crossed each other about one mile west of Waxahachie, in Ellis County; that while appellee J. T. Edling was a passenger on a train of said Fort Worth & New Orleans Railway Company, going west at or near said crossing, the servants and operatives of the appellant’s train negligently ran a passenger engine and train of cars attached thereto into the train of the said Fort Worth & New Orleans Railway Company, upon which J. T. Edling was a passenger, without any fault on the part of said Edling, thereby causing a wreck and greatly injuring said Edling. Appellee’s injuries are permanent, and he has sustained damages thereby in the amount found by the jury.

*173 Appellant does not present its first and second assignments of error, but presents its third assignment, which reads as follows:

“The court erred in failing to submit the special defense pleaded, that the collision complained of, if not the result of a wrongful tampering with defendant’s appliances for stopping its trains, which were alleged to be the latest and most approved in use for the purpose, was the result of some defect in said appliances not discoverable by the most careful examination, and which inventive genius has been unable to overcome in the most approved appliances for stopping trains; and that, in fact, defendant’s employes used all the care, caution, and prudence possible under the circumstances in which they were placed to avoid the collision, which was claimed to have been an unavoidable accident; and the court further erred in refusing the third special instruction requested on behalf of the defendant, intended to present this defense to the jury.”

The contention of appellant is that its defense embraced two theories: one that the brakes had been tampered with by parties not connected with the railroad company; and the other that the train was equipped with the most approved appliances for controlling it, and that the brakes had always worked perfectly up to the time of the accident, and that their failure to work at the time of the accident was due to latent defects which could not have been ascertained by the use of ordinary care. The appellant admits that the charge fairly submitted to the jury the law governing its first contention, and further that the charge laid down the true rule as to the degree of care due from appellant to appellee at the time of the collision.

The evidence was, that the train could be controlled and stopped by the engineer from the engine if the brakes were in proper order, or the train could be stopped by the engineer giving the signal to apply the brakes, and that had the signal been given to apply the brakes, the train could have been stopped in a few seconds. The engineer did attempt to work the brakes from the engine, but they would not work. The evidence shows that the reason the brakes would not work was that the “angle cock” just in front of the blind baggage car was turned, which cut off the air beyond that point in the “train line,” and prevented the engineer from manipulating the air from the engine. The engineer says: “If I had whistled for brakes, it. would have been the duty of each and every employe to pull the conductor’s cord, and if the conductor’s cord had been pulled in any coach it would have set the brakes on the entire train back of where it was cut off, and would have stopped the train within 300 or 350 feet.” The engineer did not call for brakes.

The court instructed the jury that if the defendant’s engineers and other employes engaged in operating its said engine and train when approaching said crossing, after they had discovered that said air brakes had been tampered with (if they had), or failed to work (if they did so fail to work), failed to use such care, caution, and effort to stop said locomotive and train as persons of ordinary care, caution, and prudence would have exercised under similar circumstances to have stopped said *174 train, then the failure of defendant’s agents, servants, and employes to stop said locomotive and train would be negligence.

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Bluebook (online)
45 S.W. 406, 18 Tex. Civ. App. 171, 1898 Tex. App. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-kansas-texas-railway-co-v-edling-texapp-1898.