Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Kennedy

403 S.W.2d 909, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2094
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 26, 1966
DocketNo. 194
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 403 S.W.2d 909 (Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Kennedy) 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 Pacific Railroad v. Kennedy, 403 S.W.2d 909, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2094 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

SELLERS, Justice.

Appellee, a conductor on appellant’s train, brought this suit against appellant under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S. C.A. § 51, for injuries he claims to have sustained when the caboose in which he was riding and the five cars ahead of it became separated from the rest of the train after which the rear of the caboose derailed. Upon a jury verdict the trial court awarded appellee judgment against appellant in the amount of $75,000.00. From this judgment the appellant railroad company has duly prosecuted this appeal. Appellant has assigned some fourteen points of error, all of which this court has concluded must be overruled except those complaining of jury misconduct which we are of the opinion must be sustained, and in view of another trial we forego a discussion of the other points which we have overruled.

Appellant’s assignments Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are as follows:

“POINT OF ERROR NO. SEVEN— (Restated)
“The trial court prejudicially erred in refusing to grant Appellant a new trial on account of the misconduct of the jury, while assessing Appellee’s damages, in discussing and taking into consideration the attorney’s fees which Appellee would be required to pay.
[910]*910“POINT OF ERROR NO. EIGHT— (Restated)
“The trial court prejudicially erred in refusing- to grant Appellant a new trial on account of the misconduct of the jury, while assessing Appellee’s damages, in discussing and taking into consideration whether or not Appellee would receive any pension, compensation, payments from insurance, social security, retirement funds, and hospital benefits.
“POINT OF ERROR NO. NINE— (Restated)
“The trial court prejudicially erred in refusing to grant Appellant a new trial on account of the misconduct of the jury, while assessing Appellee’s damages, in discussing and taking into consideration whether or not Appellee would be permitted by Appellant to return to work for Appellant.
“POINT OF ERROR NO. TEN— (Restated)
“The trial court prejudicially erred in refusing to grant Appellant a new trial on account of the cumulative effect of the misconduct of the jury, while assessing Appellee’s damages, in discussing and taking into consideration attorney’s fees, whether Appellee would receive any pension, compensation, payments from insurance, social security, retirement funds, and hospital benefits, and whether or not Appellee would be permitted by Appellant to return to work for Appellant.”

Appellant’s motion for new trial setting up jury misconduct has attached to it the affidavit of one of the jurors which in part states:

“My name is Ozella Smith and I live on Route 4, Palestine, Texas. I was one of the jurors chosen to try the case of A. B. Kennedy vs. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. about the middle of February, 1965.
“The jury did not have too much trouble answering the issues in the charge until it got down to the part on how much to give the man. The jury got into a discussion on whether or not the Plaintiff could go back to work for the railroad after the case was tried and whether he would receive any kind of pension of payments from any kind of insurance or any kind of railroad retirement or hospital benefits. Most all the jurors said that the Plaintiff, Mr. Kennedy, would be through as far as the railroad was concerned and that he could not work for them any more and would not get any kind of pension, compensation, insurance or hospital benefits of any kind. I told the jury that I knew a man in Palestine, who lives near a woman that I work for named Mr. Coleman who had sued the railroad and had gotten a settlement from the railroad and then made them put him back to work. This was when the jury had Mr. Hughes, the foreman, write a note to the Judge asking him some questions about pensions, compensation, hospitalization and retirement funds.
“When the Judge gave us the answers that he did to the questions all of the jury except me agreed that the man was not going to get anything else from the railroad and could not go back to work for them.
“When the jury got to discussing how much to pay the man, a discussion was had on how much the attorney representing Mr. Kennedy would get for his fee. It was generally decided that the attorney would get ½ of whatever Mr. Kennedy got. The amount of attorney’s fees was taken into consideration by the jury in deciding what amount to pay Mr. Kennedy. It was agreed by the jury that it wanted Mr. Kennedy to have $50,000.00 since he couldn’t go back to work and wasn’t going to get any pension or retirement and that his attorney’s fee should be added on to it. The jury figured that the lawyer would pay the medical bills of Mr. Kennedy. Mr. [911]*911Hughes, the foreman, set down on paper the amounts that the jury thought Mr. Kennedy ought to get and the amount that the attorney would get and the amount that the doctors would get. That is the way that the jury came up with the $75,000.00 damages for Mr. Kennedy.”

This juror was called as a witness on the hearing of the motion for new trial and testified at length about the jury misconduct and without objection stated that everything she had said in the affidavit was true and it is for this reason that we set out the affidavit above rather than quote at length from her testimony.

Only one of the jurors testified at the hearing on misconduct and he does not dispute that the misconduct stated by the other juror was true but says that after the jury sent out a note to the Judge and received the court’s answer, they then answered the amount of damages.

During the deliberations of the jury, they made the following request of the trial court:

“1. After this suit is settled, will the Plaintiff receive any Pension or Compensation or Payments from any Insurance, Social Security or Retirement funds, Hospital Benefits of any kind?
“2. If so, how much.
“/s/ W. C. Hughes, Foreman.”

Appellant moved for a mistrial, but the trial court overruled the motion and answered the jury’s note as follows:

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury:
“In response to your request, you are advised that you are not to consider the matters inquired about in your deliberations, but only the evidence admitted in the trial of this case and the Main Charge of the Court heretofore given you.-
“/s/ R. W. Lawrence
“Judge Presiding.”

After the hearing on the motion, the court made findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows:

“FINDINGS OF FACT
“The Court finds as facts: that during the jury’s deliberation of its verdict in this cause
“I.
“The jury discussed the amount of attorney’s fees which Plaintiff would be required to pay out of any verdict returned by the jury.
“II.
“The jury discussed whether or not Plaintiff would be permitted by the Defendant, Missouri Pacific Railroad Co.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
403 S.W.2d 909, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-pacific-railroad-v-kennedy-texapp-1966.