South Plains Coaches, Inc. v. Behringer

4 S.W.2d 1003
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 18, 1928
DocketNo. 2947.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 4 S.W.2d 1003 (South Plains Coaches, Inc. v. Behringer) 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
South Plains Coaches, Inc. v. Behringer, 4 S.W.2d 1003 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

HALL, C. J.

The appellee, Behringer, instituted this suit against appellant company to recover damages resulting to him while a passenger upon one of appellant’s interurban busses, occasioned by a collision en route between the bus and a Chevrolet car driven by third parties. The collision occurred upon a public highway at night.

The ease was submitted to a jury upon special issues and resulted in a verdict and judgment in appellee’s favor in the sum of $3,000, with interest and eostsi

On account of numerous contentions attacking the sufficiency • of plaintiff’s allegations of negligence and damages, it is necessary to set out the facts stated in the petition relative to these contentions, which we do, as follows:

“On the occasion when he was injured, the defendant negligently and carelessly operated and drove said automobile or coach in which plaintiff was riding at a dangerous and negligent rate of speed of 35 miles and more per hour on an average, and when on the highway, passing another automobile, driven in the opposite direction, such car was being run at a rate of speed exceeding 35 miles per hour, and the driver thereof negligently collided or caused to be collided said coach with another automobile, and threw the coach or automobile into the ditch, and plaintiff was seriously and permanently injured as the direct and proximate result of such negligence. He further shows: That the brakes or steering wheel of the coach of the defendant was defective and was not sufficient to control the movements of said car to stop it and get it under control when necessary, and that this said negligence was the direct and proximate cause of the injuries sustained by plaintiff. * * * That the driver of the automobile he was riding in was negligent and careless in the operation of same and never operated it with safety for the plaintiff. That said driver never properly observed the law of the road. He never had his car under control when meeting.and passing automobiles traveling in an opposite direction. That said driver was unacquainted with the conditions of said road or else negligently violated same. That he was without a proper license as a chauffeur to operate said car and this with the knowledge of the defendant. He never had brought his car under control when meeting and passing said automobile he collided with. * * * And at the time the car in which he was riding was violently driven into a ditch or gully by the side of the highway with great force and violence, and he was thrown from the rear seat of said coach or automobile over the other seats therein and through the windshield head foremost, and as a result his head was badly cut and bruised and scalped. Such injuries crazed and dazed him, and he was unconscious for some period thereafter. His body was bruised and injured, and the ligaments and nerves of his head, neck, and shoulders were seriously • and permanently injured. As a result, a considerable amount of blood was lost and a surgical operation was necessary to be performed on his head and sew back his scalp. His head is disfigured as well as his forehead, and he is seriously and permanently injured and has suffered and sustained actual' damages in the sum of $10,000,” etc.

By a second amended original answer, the defendant pleaded for the first time in abatement an instrument in writing signed by the plaintiff on November 19, 1926, which is as follows:

“Receipt is hereby acknowledged from the American Fidelity & Casualty Company, Inc., Richmond, Va., of the sum of amount to cover hospital and doctor bills to date of dismissal from Lubbock Sanitarium, in full settlement and final discharge of any and all claims or demands by reason of damage, loss or injury which heretofore has been or which hereafter may be sustained by A. A. Behringer, in consequence of an accident occurring on or about the 18th day of November, 1926, releasing said American Fidelity & Casualty Company, Inc., of Richmond, Va., and South Plains Coaches, Inc., from all further liability. And in further consideration of said sum of money t(¡> me in hand paid in settlement aforesaid and pursuant to the terms and conditions of the policy of the assured, I do hereby assign, make over, subro-gate, and transfer to the said American Fidelity & Casualty Company, Inc., of Richmond, Va., all claims, rights, and choses in action which I now have or which I may hereafter have against any and all persons lawfully responsible for thq damage, personal or property, on or about tiie date aforesaid.”

*1006 ' This instrument is witnessed by M. C. Over-ton and C. W. Jones.

Following the plea in abatement, the answer contains numerous exceptions which will be hereinafter considered, a general denial, and a plea of accord and satisfaction as evidenced by the foregoing instrument. It is further alleged that the injury resulted by reason of the negligence of the driver of the Chevrolet automobile with which defendant’s bus collided, and by reason of the negligence of the driver of a certain wagon which was parked on the road at the time and place of the accident. It is further alleged that the injuries resulted from an unavoidable accident for which the defendant is in no way responsible.

The plaintiff filed a supplemental petition, in which he more specifically set out the grounds of negligence and described his injuries. t

In considering the effect of the excep^-tions referred to, urged against the sufficiency of the allegations of negligence and injuries in the petition, ■ the facts set up in the supplemental petition cannot be taken into consideration. Under the rules prescribed for the district and county court numbered 1 to 15 inclusive, the plaintiff must, in his original petition or in some amendment, thereof, state all the facts upon which his cause of action is founded, and in considering the effect of a demurrer, the sufficiency of such allegations cannot be aided by additional facts set up in a supplemental petition, because the office of a supplemental petition, as defined by the rules, is to reply to the last preceding pleading of the opposite party. Crescent Ins. Co. v. Camp, 64 Tex. 521; Glenn v. Dallas County Bois D’Arc Island Levee District, 114 Tex. 325, 268 S. W. 452; Schaff v. Perdue (Tex. Civ. App.) 254 S. W. 151; First State Bank of Terrell v. Rice (Tex. Civ. App.) 251 S. W. 284; Gossett v. Vaughan (Tex. Civ. App.) 173 S. W. 933

In response to the special issues submitted, the jury found: (1) That the driver of the autobus was guilty of negligence immediately preceding and at the time of the accident ; (2) that such negligence was the proximate cause of the accident; (3) that the collision was. not due to an unavoidable accident; (4) that at the time the plaintiff signed the written release and transfer he was incapable of understanding its nature and effect; (5) that the attorney representing the defendant who secured his signature thereto did not misrepresent to plaintiff the nature and effect of the instrument; and (6) that as a result of the accident, plaintiff has suffered damages in the sum of $3,000.

The charge was not objected to because the court failed to submit the several alleged acts of negligence separately. The statement of facts Contains 138 closely written pages, and we are not required to read it in order to determine which of the specific acts of negligence are supported by'the evidence.

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4 S.W.2d 1003, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-plains-coaches-inc-v-behringer-texapp-1928.