Payne v. Harris

241 S.W. 1008, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 947
Texas Commission of Appeals·Decided May 24, 1922·No. No. 310-3639·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

The case, as stated by the Court of Civil Appeals, follows:

“In June, 1918, the appellee, C. S. Harris, was injured while in the service of the appellant as the Director General of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company. This appeal is from the judgment in favor of Harris for $13,000 as damages.
“The evidence shows that Harris was employed in 'the railway shops at Marshall, Tex., as a laborer. At the time of the injury he and three .other employés were engaged in moving boxes filled with iron cuspidors from one part of the building to another. The injury occurred as the result of an effort by Harris and his fellow employés to lift one of those boxes and place it upon a truck. Harris testified that Kimbrough, the foreman, brought the truck to the box and ordered them to lift the box onto the truck. After making an unsuccessful effort to lift the box Harris says they ‘all kinder straightened up, and I said something about some one not trying to lift it. The foreman was worried and angry, and told us to lift it onto the truck, and we tried to do so. I made the remark to the man in front that they were not trying to iift, or something like that, and the other fellow made some remark; then the foreman told us to lift it onto the truck, and when we complained about some laying off and not lifting it, he kinder jostled and kicked the truck and said, “G- d-•, put the box on there; put the stuff on there, if you are going to. Got to clean out here this evening; just got this evening to get this stuff.” * * * iffe took hold again, and lifted at it, to put.it on the truck, but didn’t lift it. I made an effort to lift it, but couldn’t. When I lifted at it the last time, something seemed like it tore loose in my head or ear. It popped some way. I don’t know — best I can tell how it did feel — sorter popped and tore, and my head seemed to get big and swell, and I quit-just stopped. The injury was to the right side of my head. I was injured the last time I lifted the box, after Mr. Kimbrough cursed and said, “Put it on the truck.” ’
“The evidence warrants a finding that Harris sustained serious injury as a result of the second attempt to lift the box. The petition charged negligence on the part of the foreman in ordering the appellee and his fellow employés to lift a box too heavy for them to handle in that manner, and also negligence on the part of the three fellow employés in failing to render Harris proper assistance in lifting the box.
“Defendant pleaded, among other things, assumed risk. The issues were submitted to a jury under a general charge from the court, and a verdict was rendered in favor of the ap-pellee for $18,000. This, however, was reduced by the court, on a motion for a new trial, to $13,000.”

The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment. 228 S. W. 350.

[1010]*1010Plaintiff in error complains of the court’s charge on various .grounds. But the only exception or objection shown, by the record, to have been made by him, is that the portion thereof submitting the issue of assumed risk “fails to instruct the jury affirmatively relating to assumed risk and only sets up an exception where the doctrine of assumed risk would not apply, and fails to state when the same would apply.” Therefore, no objection having been made to any other portion of the charge before it was read to the jury, all complaints based on other portions are unavailing here because,. by failure to object to the charge, in the other particulars complained of, all such objections were waived. In an exhaustive review of articles 1971-1974 of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1911, our Supreme Court, speaking through Chief Justice Phillips, in G.. T. & W. Ry. Co. v. Dickey, 108 Tex. 126,187 S. W. 184, says:

“The effect of amended article 1971 and unamended article 1972, in relation to the general charge of the court, when construed together, is plainly this:
“1. At the conclusion of the introduction of the testimony the judge is required to submit the charge to the respective parties or their attorneys for their examination and the presentation of objections to it. A reasonable time must be given them for this purpose. Objections to the charge shall in every 'instance be presented to the court before it is read to the jury. All objections not so made and presented shall be considered as waived.
“2. Since, by article 1972, the charge is made a part of the record of the cause and is to he regarded as excepted to and subject to revision for errors without the necessity of taking any bill of exception to it, no bill of exception is necessary to entitle a party to a review of the errors in the charge; provided, in the particular complained of, it was objected to before read to the jury. In other words, construing the two articles together, the change worked in the law is to require that for errors in the general charge to be reviewable on appeal they must bo brought to the court’s attention before the charge is read to the jury; otherwise they are waived. ⅜ * ⅜ As revealed by the terms of the amendatory act, the larger purpose of the Legislature, in relation to the general charge, was to 'give the trial judge an opportunity to correct any errors in his charge before giving it to the jury, so as to avoid new trials or reversals on that account. To accomplish this purpose, the method devised was the requirement of amended article 1971, that all objections to the charge shall be presented to the court before it is read to the jury, upon the penalty of a waiver of the error. ⅜ ⅜ * The three articles, that is, amended articles 1970 and 1971 and unamended article 1972, in our opinion simply mean that in order to obtain a review of the general charge of the court on the appeal because of any error therein, an objection to the charge in the particular complained of must be presented to the trial judge before the charge is read to the jury, and that when such ' objection is so made, it is the right of the complaining party to have the error considered by the appellate court, without the necessity of going through the formal procedure of reserving a bill of exception to the charge, inasmuch as article 1972 left unamended by the act, distinctly provides that no bill of exception to the charge is necessary for its revision on appeal on account of error.”

Assignments of error based upon the single objection above noted canno-t be considered because there is nothing in the record showing that the objection was presented to the court before the charge was read to the jury. In the case of G., T. & W. Ry. Go. v. Dickey, supra, the Supreme Court said:

“The amendatory act is silent with respect to the manner in which it is to be evidenced of record what objections were made to the general charge of the court, and that those made were presented to the court before the reading of the charge to the jury, as is plainly required by amended article 1971. To accomplish the purpose of the amendatory act in its relation to the general charge -there should, of course, be some authentic record that the objections to the general charge urged on the appeal were in fact presented to the trial court, and presented before the charge was read to the jury. We think a filed paper in the cause setting forth the objections, with some due authentication of the fact that they were presented to the court, and before the reading of the charge to the jury, substantially complies with the requirement of amended article 1971.

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Payne v. Harris, 241 S.W. 1008, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 947 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1922).

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