Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. v. Mobley

69 So. 614, 194 Ala. 211, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 245
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJune 3, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 69 So. 614 (Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. v. Mobley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. v. Mobley, 69 So. 614, 194 Ala. 211, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 245 (Ala. 1915).

Opinion

THOMAS, J. —

This action was by appellee to recover damages against appellant for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by her while being transported as a passenger of the defendant on its passenger train.

The evidence discloses that Mrs. Ruth Mobley bought her ticket to Atlanta, Ga., and boarded appellant’s passenger train at the terminal station in Birmingham, Ala., carrying her one year old baby; that she went into the parlor car of appellant’s train and paid the additional sum of .75 cents for the privilege of riding on said parlor car; that when the train was between 25 and 40 miles out from Birmingham, Mrs. Mobley went to the ladies’ toilet on the car on which she was riding and attempted to open the door thereto; that the door opened with a jerk, disclosing two men who had been drinking; and that fumes of whisky emanated from the toilet as the door opened; that one of the men shoved Mrs. Mobley out and down on the floor against the wall, and the other cursed her. Appellee went back to her seat, rang the bell for the conductor, and reported what had happened to the conductor and to the porter in charge of the car, [218]*218and the conductor went. back to where the men were, fastened them in the toilet, and did not let them out on their request. Thus confined by the conductor in the toilet, the men tried to- get out and were disorderly and cursed in appellee’s hearing. The appellee claims that this assault on her, and the disorderly conduct of the drunken men, caused her to be bruised and sore in her face and body, seriously affecting her nervous system, causing a cessation of the flow of her milk for the nourishment of her baby, and causing her great physical and mental pain and suffering. The evidence further tends-to show that the car in which appellee was riding was a part of appellant’s train operated by appellant, and that said car and its conductor and porter were under the charge and control of appellant’s train conductor.

(1) There are several assignments of error challenging the rulings of the court on the admission of evidence against the objection of the defendant. The appellee as a witness had testified without objection that when she notified the conductor he went back to where the men were and “when he came back he said it was all over, and that he was very sorry it happened; that it was neglect on his part; that he should have been back there.”

The bill of exceptions does not show that the question eliciting this statement was duly objected to before answer or after answer, as not responsive to the question eliciting this statement of the conductor, or that motion was made to exclude the statement, and that on ruling of the court thereon an exception was reserved to such ruling. The court’s ruling cannot be reviewed by the statement, in the bill of exceptions: “Defendant here objected to the introduction of that part of the answer of the Avitness Avhich relates to- what the conductor said, on the ground that the same is hearsay.”

[219]*219To review the action of the court in permitting the introduction of the testimony, the objection must be directed to the question when asked, and the exception taken to the ruling of the court thereon, and if the answer was not responsive, a motion must be made to exclude, and an exception reserved to the ruling of the court thereon.

(2) The bill of exceptions is construed most strongly against the party excepting, and if it will admit of two constructions, one of which will reverse, and the other support, the judgment, the latter construction will be adopted. — Dickens v. State, 142 Ala. 49, 39 South. 14, 110 Am. St. Rep. 17; McGehee’s Case, 52 Ala. 224.

(3) The practice cannot be sanctioned of objecting, not to questions propounded, but to testimony already before the jury. The answer to a question propounded in speculation upon what a witness will say, proving unfavorable, cannot be eliminated by á motion to exclude. — Dowling v. State, 151 Ala. 131, 44 South. 403; Coppin v. State, 123 Ala. 58, 26 South. 333; Woodson v. State, 170 Ala. 87, 54 South. 191; Gordon v. McLeod, 20 Ala. 242; Rives et al. v. McLosky, 5 Stew. & P. 330.

(4) There was no error in the court’s overruling the defendant’s objection, for it is clear that it was not made to the question when propounded and before answer. The motion to exclude does not clearly appear to have been ruled on. — Stuart v. Mitchum, 135 Ala 546, 551, 33 South. 670.

(5) Even if the statement in the bill of exceptions that “the court overruled defendant’s objection” could be applied to the motion to exclude, there was no exception to the action of the trial court in refusing to grant the motion. — Vankirk L. & C. Co. v. Green, 132 Ala. 348, 31 South. 484.

[220]*220(6, 7) The question, “Was the conductor speaking to you, Mrs. Mobley?” was competent and explanatory of the testimony she had just given without objection. If the witness included in her answer to this question other matter that was not responsive, it was the duty of the defendant to move to exclude the part of her answer that was not responsive to the question, and to invoke a ruling on its motion by the court, and to show by the record an exception to the ruling. The illegal and immaterial testimony should be pointed out by the party objecting thereto. The court is not required to look for the grounds of the objection, nor to separate relevant and competent testimony from that not responsive and not relevant, and the court cannot be placed in error for overruling the objection. — B. R., L. & P. Co. v. Saxon, 179 Ala. 136, 157, 59 South. 584.

The assignments of- error disclose no error in the rulings of the trial court on the introduction of evidence.

The second assignment of error is based on the refusal of the court to give the general charge in favor of the defendant. The complaint consists of two counts. The first count shows the relation of common carrier and passenger between the plaintiff and defendant, and sufficiently alleges the negligence of the defendant, without specifying the particular acts or omissions of the defendant as constituting the negligence on which the action is founded. The second count shows the relation of common carrier and passenger, and alleges that while plaintiff was a passenger of defendant on its line between Birmingham and Atlanta, Ga., the defendant’s servants or agents negligently failed to preserve order among certain male passengers, and negligently allowed them to engage in disorderly conduct, to use obscene, indecent, threatening, profane, and insulting language in [221]*221the presence and hearing of the plaintiff and in close proximity to her. There was in the record evidence tending to support, or furnishing a reasonable inference of the truth of, the material averments of each count of the complaint, and the general charge for the defendant was properly refused.

(8) A common carrier owes the duty to- exercise the highest degree of skill and diligence in conserving the safety of its passengers. It is bound to.

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Bluebook (online)
69 So. 614, 194 Ala. 211, 1915 Ala. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seaboard-air-line-railway-co-v-mobley-ala-1915.