Pecos & N. T. Ry. Co. v. Coffman

160 S.W. 145, 1913 Tex. App. LEXIS 417
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 24, 1913·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

HENDRICKS, J.

This is the second appeal of this cause, the first having been made to the Court of Civil Appeals of the Second District, from the district court of Deaf Smith county, reported in 56 Tex. Civ. App. 472, 121 S. W. 219; the judgment of the trial court, for the sum of $17,500, upon that appeal having been reversed by said appellate court.

The appellee claims to have received certain injuries, while a passenger upon one of appellant’s trains, alleging the negligence of appellant in running into an open switch and colliding with some freight cars on the siding, and claiming that by the force of the collision he was thrown from the seat in which he was sitting and against the back of another seat and to the floor of the coach.

First. By different specifications of error, and in different phases, the appellant, railway company, in its first, second, third, and fourth assignments of error, assails the action of the district court in permitting “traumatic hysteria” to become an issue in the cause as a consequential injury, principally contending that the general allegations of plaintiff’s injury are not sufficiently specific to comprehend the proof of the issue. We find from this record that “traumatic hysteria” is a specific disease of the mind, often produced from shock, and the injured person may suffer from loss of sensation as a result thereof, the' same as in paralysis, to the extent of producing anesthesia of the body, believed by the plaintiff to be affected, as that the sufferer in a developed case, as indicated by this record, may stand the application of tests which in a normal body would cause flinching and pain; and, as expressed by one expert, you may “prick him with a pin without any demonstration, just the same as a man with a paralyzed nerve.” Whether functional, or a seated disease; whether with or without a pathoíogical basis, it is clear from this record, as expressed by Dr. Maguire, an expert witness for appellant, traumatic hysteria “often follows a shock, injuries, or accidents or things of that kind,” and “persons suffer a loss of sensation and absence of power in the motor nerves to different portions of the body from that ele-' ment superficially, very similar to that which follows a destruction of the nerve cells, sometimes both of motion and sensation”; and, as expressed by Dr. Herzel, appellee’s witness, traumatic hysteria “is a serious trouble, and affects both motor and sensuory nerves * * * and is hysteria produced from an injury, * * * and they use the word ‘traumatic’ because the man may be in an accident, and he receive a fright at the same time, and in such hysteria he refers to that particular part of the body, but the disease is in the brain, and it remains with him for years.” The testimony of this disease was principally injected into this record by the appellant, as it believed at the trial, and contends now', that evidence of such a complaint was not within the scope of appellee’s pleadings sufficiently to make a presentation of such issue to the jury, and presented by appellant at the trial upon the theory, if appellee was telling the truth as to his sensa *147 tions, aches, and his pains, he may have been suffering from such a complaint, and not from any “serious spinal cord ailment described by his doctors as emningio mielitis, and sclerosis of the cord,” and did not begin to object to the testimony as supporting an issue in the cause until Dr. Herzel, one of appellee’s witnesses, on direct examination, in rebuttal, testified rather abstractly, as shown by this record, in regard to this specific complaint. However, whatever the source of the testimony, when the matter finally developed, the solution of it as an admissible issue in the cause is referable to the sufficiency of appellee’s pleadings.

The general rule appropriate to this subject is: “The general allegation of damages will suffice to let in proof and to warrant a recovery of all such damages as naturally and necessarily result from the wrongful act complained of. * * * But where damages actually sustained do not necessarily result from the act complained of,' and consequently are not implied by law, the plaintiff must state in his declaration the particular damage which he has sustained, for notice thereof to the defendants”—and Justice Stay-ton, in the same ease, in illuminating the principle, further says: “The rule, however, is satisfied when from the facts stated the law infers other fact or facts; for whatsoever the law infers from a given state of facts, the adverse party is presumed to know, and must take notice of, whether it is specially pleaded or not.” Railway Company v. Curry, 64 Tex. 87.

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Pecos & N. T. Ry. Co. v. Coffman, 160 S.W. 145, 1913 Tex. App. LEXIS 417 (Tex. Ct. App. 1913).

160 S.W. 145 (Pecos & N. T. Ry. Co. v. Coffman) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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