Moore v. Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Co.

3 La. App. 731, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 99
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 10, 1926
DocketNo. 2449
StatusPublished

This text of 3 La. App. 731 (Moore v. Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Co., 3 La. App. 731, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 99 (La. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, J.

[732]*732OPINION.

Plaintiff says that he sprained his saero iliac joint in stepping from defendant’s train at Sarepta, Louisiana, on December 22, 1923.

Dr. J. B. Benton testified, pages 90, 93, that such a sprain would necessarily immediately cause excruciating pain.

“Q. Now, doctor, doesn’t it require a pretty severe blow to cause a dislocation of the sacro iliac joint or separation there ?
“A. It was held up a long while among the profession that you could not have a dislocation of the sacro iliac joint without fracture; it was hound together so tight, it was constructed in such a way, that it was practically impossible to dislocate it without a fracture of the hone.”
“Q. I say it would take some sudden tremendous blow or force to cause this separation, would it not?
“A.' Strong.
“Q. Yes.
“A. Yes, I am sure it would.
“Q. And just to cause a sprain would take considerable force or strain, would it not?
“A. It would take some force, no doubt.
“Q. Would it not take considerable?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Because otherwise everybody would have them, if just from an ordinary jar they could get one. ’That is correct, is it not?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Now, when the sprain or separation occurs, is it not always accompanied with violent pain and suffering?
“A. Yes, sir.”

At the time plaintiff stepped from defendant train and is alleged to have suffered a sprain of the sacro iliac joint, there was no outcry by him whereby any of the train crew or passengers on the train or persons about the depot might have learned that he had suffered an injury. In fact, Mr. G-. R. Best, the auditor on the train, whose duty it was to assist passengers on and off the train, did not learn of the alleged accident until the filing of this suit, November 19, 1924, nearly a year afterward.

Immediately after plaintiff alighted from the train he was carried in an automobile by Mr. W. W. Dean to his (plaintiff’s) father’s house, about six miles distant, and during the trip he did not say a word about having received a sprain or other injury while alighting from the train. See evidence of Mr. Dean, pages 229 and 230.

“Q. Were you at Sarepta on the night of December 22, 1923, when Mr. Moore says he got off the train there?
“A. I was.
“Q. Did you hear any complaint or outcries when he got off?
“A. No. sir.
“Q. Who took Mr. Moore home?
“A. I did.
“Q. What did he say during the trip or while you were with him about having been hurt in a railroad accident or having been hurt while getting off the train?
' “A. He did not say anything to me about being hurt.
“Q. Did you hear him mention it at all?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. Hear him make any complaint at all?
“A. No, sir.
“Q.. Hear him say anything about falling when he got off the train?
“A. No, sir; I didn’t hear him say anything about falling. Of course, he was complaining some; he was sick.
“Q. Did you know that he had had an operation recently?
“A. I had heard it, yes, sir.
“Q. Did he say anything about there being no step box there and no one there to help him off the train?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. Did he say anything about having hurt his hip when he got off the train?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. Where did you take Mr. Moore?
“A. To his father’s.
“Q. Did you help him get out of the car?
[733]*733“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Who else, that you remember?
“A. I helped him out of the car and helped him in the house and put him to bed.
“Q. During that time did you hear him say anything about having slipped or fallen out of the train as he got off?
“A. He did not.”
Charles T. Deloach testified, page 211, et seq.:
“Q. Mr. Moore has testified that he slipped or fell when he got off that train. Were you looking at him as he got off?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. What have you to say as to his falling?
“A. Well, if he fell I didn’t detect it.
“Q. You did not see it?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. How close did he pass to you after he got off the train?
“A. Six or eight feet.
“Q. Did he say anything to you?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. What complaints, if any, did you hear him make?
“A. I don’t know that Mr. Moore knew that I was out there.
“Q. What complaints, if any, did you hear him make in regard' to having fallen?
"A. I never heard him make any.
“Q. What exclamations or outcries did he make when he fell and hurt himself so severely, as he said that he did?
“A. If he made any, I didn’t hear them.
“Q. How close were you to him?
“A. Prom six to eight feet; I don’t think he was closer to me than six feet.”

We cannot reconcile plaintiff’s silence on alighting from the train and afterwards as to having sprained his sacro iliac joint in alighting from the train with his contention here.

It is clear that he had sprained, fractured or displaced his sacro iliac joint at some previous time, for he had had three X-ray pictures made of his lower spine and hip bone and each of these pictures showed a slight widening of the sacro iliac joint. One of these radiographs was made on October 28, 1923—almost two months before the date on which the plaintiff claims his sacro iliac joint was sprained in alighting from the train.

Dr. S. G. Barrow testified, pages 3, 4 and 5:

“Q. How many X-rays have you made of Mr. Moore?
“A. We have examined him three times; the date just mentioned, then on January 25, 1924, and again on March 24, 1924.
“Q. Of what part of the body?
“A.

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3 La. App. 731, 1926 La. App. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-louisiana-arkansas-railway-co-lactapp-1926.