Osterloh v. San Antonio Public Service Co.

77 S.W.2d 290
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 28, 1934
DocketNo. 9448
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 77 S.W.2d 290 (Osterloh v. San Antonio Public Service Co.) 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
Osterloh v. San Antonio Public Service Co., 77 S.W.2d 290 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

BKJKETT, Chief Justice.

Albina Osterloh and her husband, Albert Osterloh, appellants, brought this action against San Antonio Public Service Company, appellee, seeking to recover damages for alleged personal injuries to Mrs. Osterloh and property damage to their automobile, sustained as a result of a collision between the automobile and a street car. Appellants have perfected this appeal from a judgment of the district court, which was based upon a jury’s verdict and which denied any recovery.

A brief statement of the facts as to the collision is necessary to the consideration of the issues raised on appeal. The collision occurred in San Antonio after dark, about 7:30, p. m., December 7, 1930. The street ear, after stopping at a dispatcher’s “ring-in station” just south of the intersection of East Commerce street and New Braunfels avenue, proceeded southward along the latter street to within a short distance of the third street {Dakota) intersection, about two and a half blocks from the point of starting to the point of collision. The motorman received a stop bell from a passenger to stop at Dakota street, and reduced his speed preparatory to making the stop. The speed of the street car just prior to the collision was estimated by the motorman at from four to six miles per hour and by Osterloh at from twenty to twenty-five miles per hour. The motorman testified that he had stopped the street car before the impact; Osterloh testified that the street car was still moving then. Osterloh testified that he was driving the automobile at from sixteen to twenty miles per hour at the time of the collision, that he turned the wheels to the right, and that he might have given it a little more speed in trying to avoid the collision. The motorman testified that the headlight was lighted and had been so for about an hour. The motorman, also, testified on cross-examination by appellants that he did not turn out the headlight at the “ring-in station,” and that it was not the custom to do so. D. H. Oates, on duty at a gasoline station located about a block before the street car reached the point of collision, testified that the headlight of the street car was lighted from the intersection of Commerce street and New Braunfels avenue until it passed him. Osterloh, his wife, and daughter testified that the headlight was not lighted until the street car was a short distance in front of the automobile, and that the light was then suddenly flashed on. The lights inside the street car were lighted at all times in question. New Braunfels avenue was, continuously paved from Commerce street beyond Dakota street, except that there was .an unpaved rough strip on the east side of the street for about half a block north of the Dakota street line. Alongside this unpaved strip, the pavement extended about two feet east of the street car rail. New Braunfels avenue was straight, and the street car track was approximately in the middle of the street. Just prior to the collision Osterloh was driving with the wheels of the automobile astride the east rail of the street car track. Both Oster-loh and the motorman were thoroughly familiar with the condition of the street. There were street lights at the comer of Commerce street ánd New Braunfels avenue and at each corner, except one irregular intersection, on the latter street down to and past Dakota street.

The jury found, in response to special issues submitted, that: (1) The motorman did not negligently fail to ring the street car bell; (2) the motorman did not discover that plaintiffs were in a position of peril in time to have avoided the collision by the use of the means at hand; (3) the defendant did not operate the street car without the headlight burning until just prior to the collision; (4) the street car was not operated at a negligent rate of speed as it approached the scene of the collision. The jury, also, found, upon the issues as to contributory negligence, that: (1) Oster-loh saw the street car in time to avoid the collision; (2) after Osterloh saw the street car, he was negligent in failing to get off the track; (3)’ such negligence directly caused or directly contributed to the collision; (4) Os-terloh failed to keep a proper lookout; (5) such failure directly caused or directly contributed to the collision; (6) plaintiff’s automobile was operated at a negligent rate of speed as it approached the scene of the collision; (7) such negligence directly caused or directly contributed to the collision. The jury, further, found upon the issues as to damages that: (1) The amount of damages to compensate Mrs. Osterloh for the alleged injuries was “none” ; (2) the reasonable amount expended in repairs to the automobile made necessary by the collision was “none.”

[292]*292Appellants assign error upon the action of the trial court in permitting appellee to propound to the witness Oates two interrogatories, which were objected to as being leading questions. The first question was, “Were the lights — was the headlight on this street car burning at the time, do you remember?” The second was, “And were the lights inside of the street car burning?” The witness answered each question in the affirmative. A question which directs the mind of the witness to a single fact is not a leading question if it may be answered “yes” or “no,” but only if it suggests to the witness the desired answer. These questions do not suggest the answer desired. And it is not possible to understand how the subject of each question could be called to the attention of the witness in any form more free from intimation or suggestion as to the answer. The questions were not subject to the objection that they were leading. International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Dalwigh, 92 Tex. 655, 51 S. W. 500; International & G. N. R. Co. v. H. P. Drought & Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 100 S. W. 1011; St. Loujs Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Lowe (Tex. Civ. App.) 97 S. W. 1087; Southern Traction Co. v. Coley (Tex. Civ. App.) 211 S. W. 265; Missouri, K. & T, Ry. Co. v. Steele, 50 Tex. Civ. App. 634, 110 S. W. 171; Consolidated Coach Corp. v. Saunders, 229 Ky. 284, 17 S. W.(2d) 233.

Appellants, also, contend that the trial court erred in excluding the question propounded to the witness Teofil Gallo: “State whether or not you are familiar with the custom of street cars when they stand there after dark at night, waiting either before or after ringing in, as to whether or not they have the headlight turned off, or on?” The objection of appellee to the question was that it was immaterial and irrelevant. As shown above, there was a conflict in the testimony as to whether the headlight was burning. Appellants argue that proof of the general custom, that motormen temporarily turned off the headlights at the “ring-in station” two and a half blocks north of the place of this collision, was relevant upon the issue as to whether this motorman had his headlight off until just prior to the collision. The avowed purpose of the question was to attempt proof of a custom, that motormen turned off headlights at the “ring-in station,” to furnish a basis for an inference that this motorman turned off his headlight on this occasion and for another inference that he started the street car without turning on the headlight and for a further inference that he proceeded two and a half blocks down the street without his headlight burning. Proof of such a. custom, as attempted to be proved, involving acts of other persons at a point two and a half blocks distant and under different conditions, was entirely too collateral and remote to be relevant. Nor was proof of such a collateral matter permissible for the purpose of attempting to contradict the witness. The court did not err in excluding the prof-ferred testimony. Chicago, R. I. & G. Ry. Co.

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77 S.W.2d 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osterloh-v-san-antonio-public-service-co-texapp-1934.