San Antonio Public Service Co. v. Wellman

288 S.W. 582
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 6, 1926
DocketNo. 7614.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 288 S.W. 582 (San Antonio Public Service Co. v. Wellman) 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 Public Service Co. v. Wellman, 288 S.W. 582 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Appellees brought this suit against appellant to recover damages on account of personal injuries inflicted upon and sustained by Mrs. Wellman, by appellant, while she was a passenger riding on one of appellant’s cars. As she was undertaking to leave the car at the corner of Houston and North Plores street, in the city of San Antonio, she slipped on a banana peeling and was thrown to the floor. The main ground of negligence was that appellant permitted the piece of banana peeling to be on the floor of the front platform of the street car, close to the little step that leads down from the main body of the car to the front platform. As she was preparing to leave the car she stepped on the piece of banana peeling which slipped and caused her to lose her balance and fall to the floor. It is alleged and proven that in falling she struck her back and head against the upright metal rod and struck her hip and back against the edge of the little step, causing her to be seriously and permanently injured. At the time of the accident she was about six months pregnant with a' child, which, because of the accident, was prematurely born, 13 days after the accident, and lived only 2% hours. And it is alleged that—

“Said child had been carried by plaintiff under abnormal conditions from the date of plaintiff’s said fall to the date of its birth, which conditions were due to the fall sustained by plaintiff and the injuries to her body and her nervous system sustained as above alleged.”

The plaintiffs also claimed in their pleading and proof that Mrs. Wellman fell in the car about noon or soon thereafter, and that after she fell the agents of the defendant company undertook to take charge of her, and that they did not promptly take her to a hospital and to a doctor, or take her home as she requested, but that she rode on the street car to the end of the West End line, sitting on one of the seats, rode back on the street car halfway to the city, where she was removed to the back seat of an automobile, and was carried to the office of the defendant on St. Mary’s street, but that she did not leave the automobile, but was then taken to the Robert B. Green Hospital, where she was examined and treated by the hospital attendants and doctors and by the company doctor, and was then taken in an ambulance to her home, and that it was about 2 or hours after the accident before she reached home. The second ground of negligence claimed against the defendant was that it negligently failed to take the plaintiff home, and was negligent in its treatment of her after the fall, and that the injuries which she received in the fall were aggravated, and her suffering was increased and prolonged, by the treatment she received at the hands of tlie defendant after she fell.

Appellant filed proper responsive pleading putting the case at issue. It was tried with a jury upon special issues and in response *583 thereto found that the defendant was not negligent in permitting the banana peeling to he on the floor; the jury found that the defendant, after Mrs. Wellman fell, took charge of her, and was negligent in its treatment of her. after so taking charge of her, until she'got home, and that such negligence directly contributed to the injuries to Mrs. Wellman which are alleged in the petition; the jury found that Mrs. Wellman was not guilty of contributory negligence; and then the following question was asked and answered by the jury:

“What amount 'of damages, if any, would, if paid now, reasonably compensate the plaintiff Elizabeth Wellman for such injuries, if any, as you may find from the evidence to have been sustained by her as alleged in-the petition? Answer, stating the amount.

“We, the jury, answer $5,000.”
And also the following question:
“What amount of damages, if any, would, if paid now, reasonably compensate the plaintiff A. R. Wellman for such expenditures, if any, as you may find from the evidence to have been incurred by him as alleged in the petition? Answer, stating the amount.
“We, the jury, answer $500.”

The primary or proximate cause of the injury was the fall, of course, and whatever prime injury was caused by the fall on ac-, count of the banana peeling was passed out of sight by the jury in holding that such injury was not caused by the negligence of appellant. If the original injury to her was not caused by the company’s negligence, still the company retained charge of her in her injured condition, and as long as it held her on its ear, which was for a period of several hours, transporting her to and from a remote part of the city before she received medical treatment or attention, the company must be held -responsible.

On the question of the nature of the injuries and treatment to her while on the car the evidence is practically undisputed. If Mrs. Wellman had been allowed to leave the car at Houston and North Flores streets, as she requested, instead of being detained on the car by appellant’s servants, under the finding of the jury, the appellant would have been exonerated. But they detained appellee on a rough, jolting street car in her injured condition until she was taken to the general offices of the company for inspection by its physician to determine the extent of her injuries, as well as her ultimate disposition.

The company saw her at the time she was injured and saw her condition and witnessed her suffering. The finding of the jury upon the first ground of negligence confines this decision to the second ground.

The jury could very well find that it was negligence in detaining the lady in her injured condition on the car instead of letting her off, in the business center of the city, where she could have more speedily obtained medical attention, and been saved from the trip and uncomfortable long car ride, which must have at least contributed to the suffering and injury received from the fall.

It may be true, as charged in the pleading and established by proof, that the injuries sustained in the fall may not alone be responsible, but such injuries were aggravated and made manifest when taken in connection with the facts. Instead of being taken off the car and taken or assisted to her quiet and restful home or to a hospital, appellee was detained and transported from the intersection of North Flores and Houston streets to the end of thé “West End” car line and halfway back to the city, where the ear was met By a service car ordered by appellant, to which ap-pellee was transferred and carried to the main office of appellant and then back to the County and City Hospital, where a physical examination was made. After all this she was taken to her home in an ambulance.

The disregard of appellee’s wishes, the detention on the street oar, the long and rough ride, and then the transfer to the service car taking her to the company’s office, then transporting her to the hospital, where the physical examination was made, and finally sending her home in an ambulance, would almost wreck the nerves of a well person, to say nothing of a physically injured and pregnant woman, such as was appellee. These facts are all undisputed.

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

Related

Continental Southern Lines, Inc. v. Robertson
133 So. 2d 543 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
288 S.W. 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/san-antonio-public-service-co-v-wellman-texapp-1926.