San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway Co. v. Weigers

54 S.W. 910, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 344, 1899 Tex. App. LEXIS 107
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 20, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 54 S.W. 910 (San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway Co. v. Weigers) 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
San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway Co. v. Weigers, 54 S.W. 910, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 344, 1899 Tex. App. LEXIS 107 (Tex. Ct. App. 1899).

Opinion

NEILL, Associate Justice.

—This is an action brought by appellee against appellant for damages on account of personal injuries alleged to have been inflicted by the negligence of the latter upon the former.

*345 Plaintiff alleged in substance, as his cause of action, that while he was repairing a bridge under the direction and control of defendant’s foreman, the foreman negligently caused the earth to be dug away from the embankment until it was twelve feet high, and nearly perpendicular ; that by the side of the embankment where a heavy piece of timber had been raised and placed upon heavy posts, said foreman negligently directed plaintiff, who was below said embankment, to steady said posts; that while he was engaged in obedience to said order, the foreman negligently went on the embankment, and there negligently endeavored to bolt or fasten said timbers; that by reason of said foreman negligently going upon the embankment, and so negligently attempting to bolt or fasten the timbers, the embankment caved in, and the pieces of timber, together with the earth, were violently thrown against plaintiff, striking him across the breast, stomach, and abdomen and arm and hand, and grievously injuring him.

He further alleged that the foreman was negligent in the manner in which he ordered the "work to be done, in that the usual and safer method would have been to have bolted or fastened the piece of timber to the posts before they were raised, and that to attempt to bolt or fasten said timber to the posts after they were raised was an unusual way of doing the work, and attended with greater danger than the ordinary method; that plaintiff was below said embankment doing the work he had been commanded to do, ignorant of the impending danger which the negligence of said foreman precipitated, and was in the exercise of all due care for his safety, and had not in any manner assumed any of the risks which culminated in his injury.

That by reason of the timber and earth falling upon him, his left arm and hand were so badly injured as to be well nigh useless; that the "blow ■across his breast and abdomen has injured him internally; that his heart has been affected, enlarged, and misplaced by said blow, and internal injuries inflicted upon his stomach, sides, and spine; that by reason of said injuries he was confined to his bed for many weeks, and suffered great mental and physical pain and loss of time, and that all "of the said injuries are lasting and permanent.

That before his injuries plaintiff was a strong and healthy man, able to earn the sum of $2.50 per day, but that now, by reason of said injuries, he is unable to work, and for the balance of his life will be an invalid, unable to earn his living by labor, and he has thereby been damaged in the sum of $20,000.

The defendant answered by a general denial and special pleas of contributory negligence and assumed risks.

The cause was tried before a jury, and resulted in a verdict and judgment for $10,000 in favor of plaintiff, from which the defendant has appealed.

In the third paragraph of the charge the court instructed the jury: “It is the duty of a railroad company to use ordinary care to furnish its em *346 ployes with a reasonably safe place to do the work required of them; and for any failure to perform this duty which proximately causes injury to one of its employes, it would be liable in damages.”

It is complained by appellant of this charge that it submits an issue not raised by the pleadings, as well as a principle of law inapplicable to cases of this character. It is evident from the allegations in his pleadings that the appellee did not intend to base his action upon the negligent failure of appellant to furnish him a safe place to do the work in hand. It is equally apparent from the cause of action stated and the evidence adduced-to sustain it, that the principle announced in the charge has no application to this case.

In the case of Allen v. Railway, 14 Texas Civil Appeals, 346, it is held, upon ample authority, bjr this court, that the rule that “ordinarily the master owes his servant the duty of inspection or reasonable care in furnishing Mm safe and suitable means for performing his work,” has no reference to the safetjr and condition of the thing the servant is employed to repair or complete.

But "it is answered by appellee that the part of the charge under consideration is merely the statement of an abstract principle; without being anywhere in the charge sought to be applied to the evidence, and not calculated to injure the appellant.

It is error for the court to give a charge containing abstractly a correct principle of law, which is inapplicable to any phase of the evidence,. and if such charge is calculated to mislead the jury, it is reversible error. Railway v. Warner, 88 Texas, 647. An erroneous charge is presumed to. have operated to the injury of the party against whom given, unless the contrary appears from the record. Emerson v. Mills, 83 Texas, 388;, Railway v. Greenlee, 62 Texas, 394.

The purpose of a charge is to inform the jury of the law applicable to. the case, and it is natural for them to suppose that when it announces a principle it is applicable, or it would not be given. Being led from its-very nature to think the charge applicable, a jimr, in their desire to find a verdict according to the law and evidence, may be presumed to have given it effect. If they considered and sought to apply it to the facts, they could have reached their verdict by this process of reasoning: “The evidence shows that plaintiff was an employe of defendant, who is a railroad company; the company, from the evidence, did not use ordinary care to furnish him a reasonably safe place to do the work required of him; its-failure to perform this duty was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury ; and therefore defendant is liable in damages.” If they arrived at their verdict in this manner, and we can not say they did not, it was from the consideration of a principle of law given in charge wholly foreign to the nature of the case.

The fifth subdivision of the charge is: “If a railroad company vests one of its employes with authority of superintendence, control, or command over other of its employes, or with authority to direct such employes in the performance of their duty, such employe vested with such superin *347 tendencc, control, or command or authority to direct, is not a fellow servant with those over whom he has such superintendence, control, or command or authority to direct, but is a vice-principal; and the company would be liable for any negligence of such vice-principal which might proximately produce injury to any of the employes over whom ho had such superintendence, control, or command or authority to direct.”

The complaint made of it by appellant is that there was no evidence that the defendant railroad had vested any of its employes connected with the accident with authority, superintendence, control, or command over plaintiff; or with authority to direct him in the performance of any duty connected with the work from which the accident occurred.

This objection is from either a misapprehension o'f the facts or a misconception of them.

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54 S.W. 910, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 344, 1899 Tex. App. LEXIS 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/san-antonio-aransas-pass-railway-co-v-weigers-texapp-1899.