Southern Pac. Co. v. Green

280 S.W. 198
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 10, 1926
DocketNo. 771-4371
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 280 S.W. 198 (Southern Pac. Co. v. Green) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Pac. Co. v. Green, 280 S.W. 198 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinion

HARVEY, P. J.

The defendant in error, T. E. Green, brought this suit against plaintiff in error, the Southern Pacific Company, for damages for personal injuries sustained by defendant in error while in the employ of said company as a brakeman and while engaged in his duties as such. In this opinion the parties will be designated, respectively, as plaintiff and defendant as in the trial court.

The plaintiff’s injuries were caused by the falling of the shovel or bucket forming a part of a machine, designated in the testimony as a steam shovel or excavatox-, which was being operated by servants of the defendant in loading dirt on defendant’s cars upon which plaintiff was performing his duties as a brakeman. The falling of the shovel was caused by the breaking of one of the stay rods which supported the boom to which the shovel was attached, thus causing the boom to give way and the shovel to fall as it did. Upon the trial in the court below, the case was submitted to the jury upon general charge, and the jury returned a general verdict for the plaintiff, assessing his damages at the sum of $5,850.

The court, in its main charge, submitted to the jury two distinct issues of negligence on the part of the defendant as affording grounds for a recovery by plaintiff. One re[199]*199lated to the act of swinging the shovel over the car upon which plaintiff was standing, of which no complaint is made here. The other issue of negligence was submitted to the jury, in the main charge of the court, in the following words:

“(1) It was the duty of the defendant to use ordinary care to inspect the excavator used by it in doing the work described in plaintiffs’ petition, and a failure to use ordinary care would be negligence. Now if you find that the plaintiff was on a car, as described by him, and that the shovel or dipper .of the gasoline excavator came down upon him and injured him, substantially as alleged by him, and you further find that a reasonable inspection would have disclosed the condition of the stay rod that broke, and that the defendant had failed to use ordinary care to inspect the excavator, and that in so failing, if it did, it was negligent, and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the injury complained of by the plaintiff, you will find for the plaintiff, unless you find for the defendant under some other charge given you.
“(2) Unless you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant did not use ordinary care to inspect the excavator, you will find for the defendant on this issue.
“(3) If you find that an ordinary inspection would not have discovered the defect which caused the boom and bucket to fall, you will find for the defendant on this issue.”

At the request of the defendant the court also gave in charge to the jury defendant’s special charge No. 5, which reads as follows:

“If you believe from the evidence that the machine in question was purchased by the defendant from a reputable manufacturing concern, and that the defendant caused same to be inspected by a firm of reputable engineers, who reported same in good condition and that a reasonable inspection would not have revealed the insufficiency of the stay rod in question, and if you further believe that the boom or dipper at and just prior to the happening of the accident swung over by reason of the breaking of said stay rod in question without negligence on the part of the defendant, then, and in such event, if you so find, your verdict must be for the defendant.”

The defendant duly objected to that part of the main charge quoted above,'which relates to inspection of the machine by defendant, and which required the jury to determine whether a reasonable inspection would have disclosed the defective condition of the stay rod that broke. One of the-grounds of objection is that there is “no evidence that ■any character of inspection would have discovered any defect in the stay rod, but the uncontroverted evidence showed * * * that any inspection would not have disclosed any defects in the stay rod which broke.” The objection was overruled by the court and complaint is duly made by defendant of such action of the court.

There is no evidence in the record from which the jury was authorized to find that a reasonable inspection by defendant thus submitted to the jury as a distinct issue would have disclosed any defect in the stay rod which broke, but, on the contrary, there is testimony in the record to the effect that no character of inspection would have disclosed a defect in the stay rod.

The evidence disclosed that the machine had been recently purchased by the defendant from a reputable manufacturer and had been in operation only about two weeks when the accident in question occurred. There was also evidence to the effect that defendant, at the time it purchased the machine, caused it to be inspected by a firm of reputable engineers, and no defects were discovered by such inspection. But during the time that the machine had been operated by defendant two defects had been discovered in other parts of the machine than the Dart involved in this accident. Conceding that the discovery of these defects would have led an ordinarily prudent person to make further reasonable inspection for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not other defects existed in the machine, the fact remains that there is no evidence from which the jury might properly determine that a further reasonable inspection would have discovered the defect that caused the accident in question.

In this state of the record, it was material error for the court to submit to the jury, as a distinct ground of recovery by plaintiff, as it did, the issue of negligence based upon the failure of the defendant to make a reasonable inspection of the machine, or to exercise ordinary care in that respect. The plaintiff contends, however, that such error was invited by the defendant in requesting and having submitted to the jury the defendant’s special charge No. 5, because such latter charge embraces the erroneous matter of which the defendant complains. There is nothing in the record indicating that said special charge was presented to the court or requested by defendant, before the court had prepared and submitted to counsel its main charge containing said issue of which defendant complains.

Articles 2184, 2185, and 2186 of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, which articles were enacted in their present form in the year 1913, read as follows, so far as pertinent here:

“Art. 2184. Unless expressly waived by the parties, the judge shall prepare and in open court deliver a written charge to the jury on the law of the case. * * * ”
“Art. 2185. The charge shall be in writing, signed by the judge, filed with the clerk, and shall be a part of the record of the cause. It shall he prepared after the evidence hps been concluded and shall be submitted to the respective parties or their attorneys for inspection, and a reasonable time given them in which to examine and present objections thereto, which objections shall in every instance be presented to the court before the charge is read to the [200]*200jury, and all objections not so made and presented shall be considered as waived. * * *
“Art. 2186. Special Charges. — Either party may present to the judge such written instructions as he desires to be given to the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
280 S.W. 198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-pac-co-v-green-texcommnapp-1926.