Southern Pacific Company v. Stanley

473 S.W.2d 52
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 4, 1971
Docket516
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 473 S.W.2d 52 (Southern Pacific Company v. Stanley) 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
Southern Pacific Company v. Stanley, 473 S.W.2d 52 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinions

[55]*55OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

This is an automobile-train intersectional collision case. Velma Eloise Stanley brought suit against the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and the engineer for damages on account of the wrongful death of her husband Ernest Stanley. Prior to trial, this case was consolidated with another action pending in the same court by Opal Gentry against the same defendants. Her husband, James Gentry, was the driver of the vehicle that was hit by the defendants’ train. The collision killed both men, the passenger Ernest Stanley, deceased husband of plaintiff, and James Gentry. The companion case involving Opal Gentry was finally determined in this Court and in the Supreme Court and is therefore not a part of this appeal, except to the extent that the facts are relevant because they arose out of the same occurrence.1, 2

The trial court entered judgment, based on the jury verdict, against the defendants and in favor of the plaintiff Stanley. On appeal this Court did, on September 24, 1970, reverse the trial court’s judgment and render judgment in favor of the defendants. This action was based on our holding that there was no evidence to support the primary issues of negligence found against the defendants.3 For this reason it was unnecessary to decide the railroad’s remaining points of error, including their points of factual insufficiency of the evidence. The Supreme Court found, however, that there was evidence of primary negligence and proximate cause of the engineer and therefore reversed this Court and remanded it to us for a consideration of the points not heretofore determined.4

The appellants by their first and second points of error contend that they are entitled to a new trial because the findings of the jury in response to special issues 6 and 7 were contrary to and were against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence to such an extent that the findings of the jury were clearly wrong. The primary negligence issues found by the jury and involved in this appeal are as follows :

“SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 6 — Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that E. R. Weitzel (the engineer) failed to reduce the speed on the train which he was operating at the time when a person of ordinary prudence in the exercise of ordinary care would have reduced the speed of said train?
Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
We, the Jury, answer ‘Yes’.

If you have answered Special Issue No. 6 ‘Yes’ and only in such event, then answer:

SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 7 — Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such failure, if any, was a proximate cause of the collision in question?
Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
We, the Jury, answer ‘Yes’.”

This Court and the Supreme Court in the four prior opinions of this case (see citations in footnotes 1 through 4) have fairly covered nearly all the facts in this case. It is therefore unnecessary for us to elaborate extensively concerning the facts involved. We do analyze portions of the evidence in as brief and as general a way possible, to point out the basis for the jury verdict.

The evidence question requires the Court of Civil Appeals in the exercise of its power to consider and weigh all of the evidence in the case and to set aside the [56]*56verdict and remand the cause for a new trial if we conclude that the verdict is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust. We are required to consider all the evidence of probative force tending to prove the existence of the vital facts and the evidence tending to disprove their existence. If the findings by the jury of the existence of the facts (considering all of the evidence) is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust, this Court should sustain the point or points of error, reverse the judgment, and order a new trial. Otherwise, this Court should overrule the points and affirm. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951), and “No Evidence and Insufficient Evidence Points of Error” by Robert W. Calvert, 38 Tex.Law Review 359.

The jury acquitted Stanley of contributory negligence. There is no contention here that the contributory negligence of the driver Gentry was imputed to his passenger Stanley. The negligence problem here is whether the engineer under all the circumstances acted as a person of ordinary prudence. It is not limited to what the engineer actually knew and realized. It encompasses what a person of ordinary prudence should know and realize.

E. R. Weitzel, the engineer, testified that prior to the time of the collision, he was riding on the right hand seat of the engine away from the approaching car. J. J. Forman, the fireman, was on the left hand seat nearest to the car occupied by the plaintiff. The engineer testified that when he had reached a point of approximately one thousand feet from the crossing, Forman told him “there will be a car coming”. The speed of the train was 30 to 40 miles an hour. The engineer started blowing the horn on the train and ringing the bell about a quarter of a mile from the crossing. He testified that he continued to blow the horn as loud as he could until the collision. The bell was still ringing after the train stopped.

The engineer testified that at approximately one hundred feet from the crossing the fireman cried out “They are going to hit us, stop! ” He immediately put the brakes on emergency. He said that when the fireman first spoke up it meant to him to be on the alert and that he expected to be warned again if it looked like a collision might occur. As a result of the first warning he placed his hand on the brake valve but did nothing until he was about one hundred feet from the crossing. Forman stated that he did not realize the car would not stop when he first told the engineer about it, but wanted to alert the engineer. He stated that he did not realize the emergency of the situation until the car emerged from the brush, at which time he told the engineer to stop.

In our previous opinion we decided that there was no duty on the part of either member of the engine crew to take any action towards slowing .the train prior to the time that the train went behind the brush, and the car was no longer visible. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Civil Appeals, saying:

“ * * * the duty arose when the operators should have realized that the automobile was ‘pursuing a course which will probably terminate in serious body injury. * * * ’ We therefore do not agree with the holding of the court of civil appeals in this case that no duty arose until the car emerged from behind the brush, at which time the crew knew that a collision could not be avoided.”

We therefore reconsider all of the relevant evidence that would point to the time when the duty of the engineer arose.

The evidence was undisputed that the signals were flashing, the train had the right-of-way and that the car was required to stop. It is true that the engine crew had the right to assume that the automobile would stop. They were not required to anticipate negligent conduct. But the [57]*57Supreme Court, speaking about this very situation, said:

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Southern Pacific Company v. Stanley
473 S.W.2d 52 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
473 S.W.2d 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-pacific-company-v-stanley-texapp-1971.