Phillips v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co.

223 S.W.2d 258
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 4, 1949
DocketNo. 4631
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 223 S.W.2d 258 (Phillips v. Texas & Pacific Ry. 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
Phillips v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co., 223 S.W.2d 258 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinions

McGILL, Justice.

This was a suit for compensatory damages for wrongful death and for serious bodily injuries growing out of a railroad crossing accident in which three persons, occupants of an automobile, were killed, and the driver of the automobile was seriously injured. The accident occurred in Pecos, Reeves County, on March 17, 1947, at about 2:30 o’clock A.M. Originally three suits were filed in the District Court of Reeves County which were subsequently transferred to the District Court of Wink-ler County and consolidated for trial by agreement of the parties. There is no question that the surviving causes of action for the deaths .of Mildred Stuart and james Webster Legg, .two of the persons who lost their lives in the tragedy, and the cause of action of Charles I.' Smith, the driver of the automobile who was seriously injured, and who sued in his own right, vested in the respective appellants, who were plaintiffs in the trial court. Trial to a jury resulted in answers to special issues on which the court rendered judgment that plaintiffs take nothing.

No question is presented as to the pleadings, and they need not be noticed; .Appellants rely on three points for reversal: (1) The court’s refusal to submit plaintiffs’ requested -special issue to determine whether or not defendant’s employees in charge of the train kept a proper lookout and issues whether such failure was negligence and a proximate cause of the colli.sion; (2) The court’s- refusal to give plaintiffs’ requested instruction and definition of “extra hazardous crossing”; (the jury having found that the crossing in question was not extra hazardous) and (3) the error of the court in overruling plaintiff’s motion for a new trial because of misconduct of the jury.

We shall first consider the third point. The jury found that the rate of speed at which defendant’s train was being operated at the time of and immediately prior to the collision was 55 m.p.h.; that such rate of speed was a proximate cause of the fatal injuries to the deceased; but that such rate of speed did not constitute negligence.

[260]*260The misconduct complained of consists of several discussions alleged to have occurred during the deliberations of the jury while they were considering special issue No. 2, which inquired whether the rate of speed of the train constituted negligence; one discussion being to effect either that there was no law, or that the jurors knew of no law, regulating the speed of trains through Pecos; a discussion of the fact that trains passed through towns other than Pecos at various rates of speed, and a discussion of the fact that trains went through other towns at 55 m.p.h., such towns and instances being named, and a specific instance in East Texas was mentioned. Ten of the jurors testified on the hearing of the motion for a new trial. Subpoenas were issued for the other two juror-s and were returned “not served”. The foreman, Brels-iord, and six jurors testified that a discussion relative to the regulation of the rate of speed of trains through Pecos occurred while the jury was considering and before they had arrived at their answer to special issue No. 2. According to some of these jurors the discussion was to effect that there was no law limiting the rate of speed of trains through Pecos. Others testified to effect that the discussion was that they knew o-f no such law. The juror Peck testified that there wa-s a discussion of the fact that trains passed through towns other than Pecos at various rates of speed, and the foreman testified that this was mentioned. The juror Cro-ssnoe testified that there was a discussion of the fact that trains went through towns other than Pecos “at that rate o-f speed” (55 m.p.h.) and that towns and instances, one in East Texas, were named. The foreman and the jurors Cruse and Compton testified that the discussions influenced them in arriving at the verdict. Three jurors testified that they had no memory of the discussions a-s testified to by the other jurors, 'but they did not deny that such 'discussions occurred. .

. Appellee’s contention that since the trial judge filed no findings .it must be presumed from the order overruling the motion for a new trial that the court found irom a preponderance of the evidence adduced on the hearing of the motion that no misconduct occurred, is untenable. This is the rule -stated in Myers v. Thomas, Tex.Civ.App., 182 S.W.2d 266, loc.cit. 269 (5-6). However, such rule has no application where there is no conflict in the evidence. There were no findings in Barrington v. Duncan, 140 Tex. 510, 169 S.W.2d 462, 469 where the judgment was reversed "because of misconduct. It is true that in passing on the question of whether misconduct occurred the court has the same latitude in determining the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony as the jury had upon the trial of the original cause. Monkey Grip Rubber Co. v. Walton, 122 Tex. 185, 53 S.W.2d 770; Martin v. J. S. Hunt Lumber Co., Tex.Civ.App., 180 S.W.2d 956. Here as appears from the above statement, there is no conflict in the testimony, and the presumption cannot be indulged.

We have concluded that the discussions referred to constituted material misconduct, and that injury probably resulted therefrom to appellants. Therefore, under Rule 327, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the court -should have granted a new trial and failure to do -so constitutes reversible error.

It is apparent from the evidence that some of the jurors, from the discussions, referred to, assumed as a fact that there-was no law — common law or statutory law enacted by the Legislature of Texas or by ordinance of the town of Pecos- — that lim- , ited the rate of speed of trains through the town of Pecos — thi-s notwithstanding the court’s stereotyped definition of negligence contained in the charge, and that total absence of any evidence as to the existence or non-existence of such law; that with this assumption as a basis they then reasoned that any rate of speed could not constitute negligence. Al-so, that the fact that trains went through other towns at the same rate of speed which they had found appellee’s train went through Pecos on the occasion in question was mentioned and discussed, the towns and specific instances being named, and that the various rates of -speed at which trains went through towns other than Pecos was also discussed, although there was fio evidence of these [261]*261facts. That this amounts to the receipt of other testimony and constitutes misconduct within the purview of Rule 327 we think clear. Nor can there be any serious doubt from the record as a whole that it reasonably appears that injury probably resulted to appellants from such misconduct. The jurors’ testimony that they were influenced by the discussions in arriving- at their verdict on their answer to special issue No. 2 is utterly without force or effect, one way or the other in passing on the question of jury misconduct, Sproles Motor Freight Lines v. Long, 140 Tex. 494, 168 S.W.2d 642, and can have no bearing in determining whether injury resulted to appellants therefrom. It is never permissible to allow a juror to preserve or destroy his verdict by testifying to the mental processes by which he reached the same. Barrington v.

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Bluebook (online)
223 S.W.2d 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-v-texas-pacific-ry-co-texapp-1949.