Southern Traction Co. v. Glenn

220 S.W. 798, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 412
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 16, 1920·No. No. 6148.·Published

Opinion

KEY, C. J.

In this case a verdict and judgment were rendered for Mrs. Martha Glenn and Minnie Glenn, the surviving wife and minor child of J. J. Glenn, against the defendant, Southern Traction Company; and the latter has brought the case to this court by writ of error.

The plaintiffs in the court below, who are defendants in error in this court, have made the following statement in their brief of the facts which they contend were established by the testimony:

“The material facts established by the testimony in tnis case relied upon by defendants in error are that on the morning of January 22, 1915, the deceased, J. J. Glenn, in company with his son, C. J. Glenn, and his landlord, J. T. Rogers, went to the interurban station of the appellant for the purpose of obtaining passage for the deceased from Waco, Tex., to West, Tex., a distance of about 17 miles, over the electric interurban lines of the appellant; that at the time the said J. J. Glenn was suffering from pains in his side, which the doctor had diagnosed as pneumonia; that he had first felt these pains on the afternoon of the 20th (two days before) and, on the day before,' the doctor had recommended to him that the rooming house where he was staying was no suitable place for a pneumonia patient, and that he should go to some more suitable place where he could obtain better care and attention, preferably to the hospital; that all arrangements had been made by long-distance telephone for family relatives to meet the said J. J. Glenn at West, Tex., and take proper care of him; that the sick man was assisted out of-the buggy, in which he had ridden some two blocks, and into the interurban station, where J. T. Rogers purchased his ticket for him, and he and C. J. Glenn assisted the sick man onto the waiting interurban car, and that some six minutes before it left J. T. Rogers tendered the ticket to the conductor, explaining the circumstances in full to him, and requesting that the conductor see to it that the sick man be put off at the station of West; that the son of the sick man was there, and offered to accompany his father to West, but after the conductor prom *799 ised to help him off at West, and since all arrangements had been inade for relatives to meet him there, prepared to take care of him, the father and son agreed that it would not be necessary for the son to accompany him, but, instead, he could come on and bring the farm wagon which was needed at home; that in violation of his promise; and with full notice of the age and infirmities of the said J. J. Glenn, the conductor failed to ■ assist him off the car at West, and paid no further attention to him until after the station of West had been passed, when he discovered his mistake and put the sick man off at Abbott on a cold, wet day in January, without taking any precautions of any kind for the safety or comfort of the old man; that the old man was forced to wait in the lumber yard office, the only place maintained by plaintiff in error as a station, in a barny old building, partly exposed to the weather, until the south-bound interurban car came along, when he was assisted back on the car by the kindness of a fellow passenger; that he was again put off the car at West, without any care or attention, after his relative had left the station; that he staggered around in the mud for awhile until a kind passenger went and got a buggy and helped him to find his relative’s home, where he went in and was put to bed; that he died the next day as a result of his undue exposure to the weather and his excited condition and nervous strain caused by the negligent conduct of the appellant.”

While the brief of the traction company contains numerous assignments of error, some of which complain of the action of the trial court in giving and refusing instruc•tions, and in rulings made concerning the admissibility of certain testimony, to our minds the only serious question in the case is involved in the contention that the proof fails to show that the death of J. J. Glenn was caused by the negligence of the traction company in carrying him beyond West, putting him off at Abbott, and carrying him back to West, and the failure to properly provide for his comfort during that time. In other words, the contention is that the proof fails to show that J. J. Glenn would not have died if the traction company had complied with its promise, and put him off when the car first reached West; and, therefore, fails to show that his death was caused by what occurred after he was carried beyond the West station.

The testimony shows that J. J. Glenn was taken sick in the city of Waco; that he lived some distance from there in the country, and had come to Waco in a wagon; that he consulted Dr. Smith, a physician, who diagnosed his case as pneumonia, and advised him to go to a hospital, but instead of doing so he went to a rooming house, and occupied a room that was not suitable for one in his condition; that on the next day his son, who was with him, ronde arrangements for him to go on appellant’s interurban railroad to the town of West, where he would be received and cared for by relatives and friends. He was carried to the station in a buggy, which was closed on the north side to protect him from the wind, and with the assistance of his son got on the car; and his son decided not to go with him after the conductor, who was told that he was a sick man, had promised to assist him in getting off at West. It was shown that in getting on the train he walked by himself in the aisle between the seats, but, notwithstanding that fact, he was very sick with pneumonia, and was in a critical condition.

Upon the hypothetical case, which plaintiffs’ testimony tended to establish, Dr. Smith testified as follows:

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Southern Traction Co. v. Glenn, 220 S.W. 798, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 412 (Tex. Ct. App. 1920).

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