Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Vann

384 S.W.2d 385, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2378
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 29, 1964
DocketNo. 6652
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 384 S.W.2d 385 (Missouri Pacific Railroad v. Vann) 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. Vann, 384 S.W.2d 385, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2378 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

PARKER, Justice.

This is a railroad crossing accident case. Appellee Annie Lee Vann, joined by her husband, sued Missouri Pacific Railroad Company for damages for personal injuries resulting from a collision between an automobile being operated by Mrs. Vann and the defendant’s Texas Eagle passenger train within the city limits of Conroe, Texas. Upon jury findings of discovered peril, Mrs. Vann recovered $22,500 from the defendant railroad company. For convenience, the parties will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant, as in the trial court.

Defendant’s first and second points assert error of the court in not disregarding the jury findings of discovered peril and entering judgment for the defendant because there was no evidence to support the affirmative findings of discovered peril and,, in the alternative, that such findings of the jury were so contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly wrong.

The third, fourth and fifth points-assert error of the court with reference to the jury findings detailed below, as having “no evidence” supporting such findings or are so contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly wrong. The jury found that prior to the collision the plaintiff Mrs. Vann was in a perilous position; that the defendant’s employees, the engineer or the fireman, discovered that Mrs. Vann was-in a perilous position; that such defendant’s employees, the engineer or the fireman, after they had discovered Mrs. Vann was in a perilous position, realized that Mrs. Vann would not in all probability extricate herself from such perilous position in time to avoid injury; that the defendant’s employees, the engineer or the fireman, discovered such peril and had such realization within such time and distance [387]*387as that by the exercise of ordinary care in the use of all means at their command consistent with the safety of themselves, their passengers and train, they could have avoided the collision; that the defendant’s employees thereafter failed to use ordinary care in the use of all means at their command consistent with the safety of themselves, their passengers and train, which failure to use ordinary care on their part was a proximate cause of the collision in question. To such findings of the jury, defendant says the court erred in not disregarding such findings because same were without any support in the evidence or so contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to he manifestly wrong. Defendant’s first five points of error were argued together by appellant. In passing upon the “no evidence” points in the first five points of error, we will follow the rule of viewing the evidence in its most favorable light in support of the findings of the vital facts, considering only the evidence and the inferences which support the findings and rejecting the evidence and inferences which are contrary to the findings.

On August 5, 1960, a bright and clear day, between 9 and 10 o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Vann was driving her automobile west on Davis Street in Conroe, Texas. Davis Street is intersected by railroad tracks which run north and south.

Mrs. Vann testified: As she drove onto the main track of the defendant railroad ■company, her automobile stalled. At the time it stalled she did not know there was a train in the area. She tried to start her ■car a couple of times, consuming some two ■or three seconds. Then she looked up to the north and saw the train approaching at the Phillips Street crossing. The Phillips Street crossing is 320 feet north of Davis Street, being the next crossing north of Davis Street. She made no further attempt to start her car but opened the car door and tried to get out of the way. After ■she got out of her automobile, the train struck her car and she was hurled south along the track for several feet. Her next recollection is of waking up in the hospital. If she could see the train at the Phillips Street crossing, the operators of the train could see her at the Davis Street crossing.

The speed of the train was estimated by the fireman at 25 mph, which is less than 40 feet per second. The fireman on the train testified: His only duty on the morning of the accident after the train entered Conroe was to keep a lookout. The track is straight and level north of the point of collision for at least three-fourths of a mile. There was no obstruction to keep him from seeing down the track to where the accident occurred. He could see right down the middle of the track there. His attention wasn’t distracted from that duty. He first saw the Vann car when it came out from behind a Sinclair bulk station before the car stalled on the track. The fireman saw the car travel until it got onto the main track and stop thereon; that in not over one second he could have applied the emergency brake. There is no evidence that the engineer or fireman considered there was any hazard or danger to the safety of the train and its passengers in making an emergency application of the brakes in this particular case. Emergency application of the brakes was made. Based on his experience, the fireman stated that this train, loaded and equipped as it was, could be stopped in 175 to 180 feet, traveling at the speed the train was traveling. He had never seen a train derailed because of applying the emergency brakes at such speed. The witness Jack Palmer, who was a bus driver for the City of Conroe, testified that he saw the Vann car as it approached the track and saw other cars crossing the track immediately ahead of Mrs. Vann; that at the time the Vann car stalled on the track, the train was a block or more north of the crossing where the car stalled.

In Creech v. Thompson, 156 Tex. 561, 297 S.W.2d 817 (1957) it was held that in a discovered peril case the fact of timely “realization” on part of train op-[388]*388crators and failure thereafter diligently to use means at hand to stop the train may be established by circumstances with or without aid of their testimony. The jury may believe part of the testimony of train operators, while rejecting other parts of their testimony. The reasoning in Creech v. Thompson, supra, as well as the principles announced in Texas & New Orleans Ry. Co. v. Hart (1962) 163 Tex. 450, 356 S.W.2d 901, and Safeway Stores, Inc. v. White (1961) 162 Tex. 473, 348 S.W.2d 162, are applied to the evidence in this case. Here the fireman saw the car when it stalled.

Under the evidence in this case, the jury could have believed the fireman’s testimony to the effect the train was traveling at 25 mph or some 40 feet per second; that he could have stopped the train at the rate of speed in 175 feet by applying the brake. The jury could have believed the plaintiff and other witnesses that the car was stalled on the track when the train was over 320 feet from the stalled automobile.

Accordingly, the jury could properly have reasoned that “realization” by the train operators of the peril to Mrs. Vann actually occurred at a point 320 feet or more from the point of collision.

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Bluebook (online)
384 S.W.2d 385, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-pacific-railroad-v-vann-texapp-1964.