Russell v. Bailey

290 S.W. 1108
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 17, 1927
DocketNo. 1456. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 290 S.W. 1108 (Russell v. Bailey) 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
Russell v. Bailey, 290 S.W. 1108 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

WALKEE, J.

On September 7, 1924, ap-■pellee, while riding his horse on one of the public roads of Liberty county, met appellant, who was driving an automobile. Ap-pellee’s horse became unmanageable, and as a result there was a collision between the car and the horse, resulting in damages to the horse and to appellee. This suit was instituted to recover damages for the injuries thus inflicted, and resulted in a judgment in favor of appellee for $2,500.

The grounds of negligence alleged by appel-lee and found by the jury were that appellant failed to reduce the speed of the car after observing the frightened and unmanageable . condition of .appellee’s horse; that he failed to stop the car; and that he failed to drive his car far enough to the right of appellee to avoid striking him.

Appellant answered by the usual exceptions, a general denial, and special pleas of contributory negligence.

All defensive issues submitted to the jury were found in appellee’s favor.

The following testimony was elicited by appellant during his cross-examination of ap-pellee :

"There was a sort of a steep place on the road right along there. I took Mr. Ted Eowe up there this last spring, and went out there on the road and showed him where X was. I went up there with him. I told Mm that I did not know just where I was when that car came up, because I did not know a thing about it. I did not tell Mr. Ted Eowe that right where he is in that picture was where my horse was when that car came up. I told him I did not know a thing about it. I told everybody that. I went out there with him, and he asked me where the car was and where the horse was, and I told him I did not know. I told everybody I did not know where I was. He and I went there. He knew where the place was. I went with him there. I told him I had never been there since I had got hurt. I had not been along there since I got hurt. I do not go there much now. Unless I am in a ear or wagon I always go through the woods.
“Mr. Eowe: I am going to tell you the truth. He came there, and I had my wagon standing at the end, and he told me to come and go down there with him, and I went with him down there. As to when it was he saw me, and I was out in the field plowing, this last spring, I do not know anything about it, more than that insurance man came to me in the field plowing.”

Appellant immediately reserved his bill of exception to appellee’s statement, “S do not know anything about it, more than that insurance man came to me in the field plowing,” and moved the court to discharge the jury “because such unresponsive answer discloses on its face that it is so inflammatory and so prejudicial it would be impossible to get a fair trial from this jury.” Counsel for appellee stated in reply that they did not object to the court instructing the jury not to consider the remark, to which counsel for appellant replied:

“You can’t cure a thing of that sort, and the mere mention of it by the court in the presence of the jury is prejudicial.”

Then the following occurred.

“The Court: Overrule the mfetion. If you want to withdraw the remark I will withdraw it.
“Mr. Touchstone: We stand on our motion.”

Thereupon the court made the following ruling:

“I sustain the objection that he urged while ago to the last question and answer, because it was not in response to the question asked.”

To sustain his proposition that this remark of the witness was error, appellant cites the following authorities, none of which are even remotely in point, viz.: Levinski v. Cooper (Tex. Civ. App.) 142 S. W. 959; Ice Co. v. Barnett (Tex. Civ. App.) 212 S. W. 236; Wichita Falls Motor Co. v. Meade (Tex. Civ. App.) 203 S. W. 71; Beazley v. McEver (Tex. Civ. App.) 238 S. W. 949; Debes v. Greenstone (Tex. Civ. App.) 247 S. W. 289; Acola v. Magnolia Petroleum Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 261 S. W. 384; Lange v. Lawrence (Tex. Civ. App.) 259 S. W. 261. The remark complained of was merely an incidental way of fixing the date, and in no way connected' appellant with the insurance man. There is not a scintilla of evidence in the record, even by the remotest inference, to show that the appellee, an old, ignorant negro, or. his attorneys were seeking to gain an undue advantage of appellant, nor to inject this improper issue before the jury. The facts of this case are absolutely on all fours with Horton v. Benson (Tex. Civ. App.) 266 S. W. 213, sustaining the ruling of the court.

And; in addition, we would say that the custom of carrying casualty insurance is now so universal and'so generally recognized that a mere incidental reference to the fact that the defendant was thus protected should not constitute error in the absence of a showing of injury. Of course, where a plaintiff willfully injects that issue, seeking an undue advantage, a different question arises. But where, in the orderly development of the case, a witness makes a statement, even if it goes to the extent of showing that the defendant was protected by insurance, it should not be held to be an error beyond the power of the court to withdraw. It would be an anomaly in law to destroy the verdict because it was made to appear, in a way not' reflecting on the plaintiff, that the defendant had done nothing *1110 more than comply with the custom of prudent men. It does not appeal to us as sound reasoning to hold as a matter of law, which is appellant’s proposition, that the jury system and the average juror, duly vested with the greatest prerogative of the law, have so deteriorated in moral responsibility as to be unable to obey a simple instruction of the court. In this case the court offered to, and, in fact, did, withdraw the statement from the jury, thereby removing its sting, if in law or fact any existed.

The juror Sailor, while being tested as to his qualifications, testified that he had such an opinion of the merits of the case a.s would require evidence to remove. On this ground he was duly challenged by appellant and the challenge overruled. Whereupon appellant excused him by a peremptory challenge. In doing so appellant exhausted all his peremptory challenges, but he has made no showing that he was forced to take an objectionable juror by reason of having exhausted his peremptory challenges in excusing the juror Sailor. The ruling was not error. G. H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Thornsberry (Tex. Sup.) 17 S. W. 521; Routledge v. Elmendorf, 54 Tex. Civ. App. 174, 116 S. W. 160, 161; McIntosh v. Atchison,, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 192 S. W. 285; Horn v. Price (Tex. Civ. App.) 200 S. W. 590; Missouri, etc., R. Co. v. Steele, 50 Tex. Civ. App. 634, 110 S. W. 171; Gomez v. State, 75 Tex. Cr. R. 239, 170 S. W. 711; Thompson v. State, 72 Tex. Cr. R. 659, 163 S. W. 973; Byrd v. State, 69 Tex. Cr. R. 35, 151 S. W. 1068.

The court did not err in submitting the issue of discovered peril. That issue was clearly raised, as shown by the following excerpts from the testimony:

Mr. J. U. Pitts testified to statements made by appellant in his presence as follows:

“I was in attendance on court during the June term of last year. I heard a conversation between the defendant, Mr. Russell, and Mr. Foreman and Mr. Campbell in Mr. Foreman’s offic'é in June, 1925. In that conversation Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cook v. Whitton
484 S.W.2d 107 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1972)
Grossman v. Tiner
347 S.W.2d 627 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1961)
Roosth & Genecov Production Company v. White
281 S.W.2d 333 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1955)
Siratt v. Worth Const. Co.
263 S.W.2d 842 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1953)
National Biscuit Co. v. Lawrence
152 S.W.2d 882 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
William Cameron Co. v. Downing
147 S.W.2d 963 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Barr
148 S.W.2d 924 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)
Texas Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Lovejoy
138 S.W.2d 254 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)
Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co. v. McKinney
126 S.W.2d 789 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)
Finck Cigar Co. v. Campbell
114 S.W.2d 348 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
South Texas Coaches, Inc. v. Woodard
123 S.W.2d 395 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1937)
Johnston & Larimer D. G. Co. v. Helf
1936 OK 845 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)
Panhandle & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Napier
90 S.W.2d 926 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1936)
El Paso Electric Co. v. Beckman
89 S.W.2d 470 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1935)
Texas Co. v. Betterton
56 S.W.2d 663 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Kansas City, M. & O. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Foster
54 S.W.2d 270 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Baker Co. v. Turpin
53 S.W.2d 154 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Southland-Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. Cotten
55 S.W.2d 1066 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Ramin v. Cosio
85 S.W.2d 802 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Thurman v. Chandler
52 S.W.2d 315 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
290 S.W. 1108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/russell-v-bailey-texapp-1927.