St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. McMichael

171 S.W. 115, 115 Ark. 101, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 118
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 19, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 171 S.W. 115 (St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. McMichael) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. McMichael, 171 S.W. 115, 115 Ark. 101, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 118 (Ark. 1914).

Opinion

Wood, J.,

(after stating the facts). We will discuss the questions in the order in which they are presented in the brief of counsel for appellant;

(1) There was no prejudicial error in permitting the counsel for appellee to ask certain witnesses, who had been introduced as expert engineers to testify with reference to the distance in which a train could be stopped, whether or not they had frequently been called by appellant and other railway companies to testify as experts. The court announced that this cross-examination would be allowed to show the interest of the witnesses. It is manifest that the court permitted the cross-examination for the purpose of testing the credibility of the witnesses; and, in the mind of a reasonable man, no prejudicial inference could be drawn from the fact that the witnesses were frequently called by the appellant and other railroad companies to testify in the capacity of experts. The questions were within the bounds of legitimate cross-examination. At least, it was within the sound discretion of the court to permit the questions to he asked and answered, and there was no abuse of the court’s discretion.

The extent to which a cross-examination should go on collateral facts is largely within the discretion of the presiding judge, and is not a matter for reversal unless it plainly appears that the discretion has been abused to the prejudice of the party objecting." St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Kelley, 61 Ark. 52.

The fact that expert witnesses were frequently called to testify in that capacity would certainly afford no reason for discrediting their testimony, and no ‘reasonable mind could draw, on that account, an unfavorable inference against the party for whom they were called to testify.

(2) The testimony of the engineer and fireman on behalf of appellant tended to show that they were keeping a constant lookout, and that they did not discover that the appellee was a human being at a sufficient distance from where he was sitting on the platform near the appellant’s railway track to have stopped the train in time to avoid injuring him; that they did everything within their power after discovering that appellee was a human being to stop the train and were unable to do so.

Appellant introduced witnesses who had made tests under essentially the same conditions, whose testimony •tended to corroborate the testimony of the appellant’s engineer and fireman. The testimony of these witnesses tended to show that it was between five and six hundred feet from where appellee was situated to where he could have been first discovered as a human being by those on an engine running at the speed of thirty-five or forty miles an hour.

It was shown on behalf of the appellant that it would take from 850 to 1,050 feet to stop a train going at a speed of thirty-five miles an hour on a level track and everything favorable.

Appellee, in rebuttal, over the objection of appellant, was permitted to introduce the testimony of witnesses to the effect that they went upon the ground, and that at a point on the track considerably over one thousand feet from where appellee was sitting at the time of his injury, they could see a man sitting in a position described by them. The appellant contends that this testimony was incompetent for the reason that the conditions under which appellee’s witnesses made their observations were not substantially or essentially the same as were the conditions under which appellee was injured.

The authorities are unanimous in holding that experiments made after the injury occurred to test the accuracy or inaccuracy -of the testimony of witnesses to the occurrence must be made under conditions that are substantially or essentially the same as were the conditions at the time of the occurrence in order to render such experiments competent. See numerous authorities cited by learned counsel for appellant.

We are of the opinion that the court did not err in holding that the conditions under which the experiments were made by the witnesses on behalf of the appellee were substantially the same. It is true that the witnesses who made these observations were not on an engine, moving at a speed of thirty-five or forty miles an hour, but there was testimony of expert passenger engineers to the effect that one accustomed to the movements of an engine could see a man as plainly from an -engine going thirty-five or forty miles per- hour as one standing or walking on the track. This testimony, although contradicted by expert passenger engineers, testifying for appellant, was, nevertheless, sufficient to render the testimony of the witnesses for appellee competent so far as the essential similarity of viewpoints was concerned. The court.heard the engineer describe, and saw him demonstrate before the jury, the position of appellee when he was injured, and heard the appellee describe the position in which he was sitting and saw him demonstrate that position before the jury. The court also heard the testimony of the witnesses, describing the position’ in which they placed a man on the platform, supposed to be the position.in which appellee was placed at the time he was injured.

The witness who, in the experiments, was placed in the position to represent the position in which appellee was placed at the ■time of bis injury, states: “I got in the same position, supposed to be, that the man was that got hurt. I remained in a reclining position during tbe time the people were taking the observations from a distance up the track. ’ ’

We must assume, therefore, that the court, by admit-' ting the testimony objected to, found that these positions were substantially the same.

The record shows that the attitudes of the witnesses making the experiments, and of the appellee at the time of his injury, were demonstrated before the court and jury. These attitudes can not be shown here, and, indulging every presumption in favor of the ruling of the trial court, we must hold that the court found that the position of the witness who, in the experiment, was intended to represent appellee’s position, was essentially the same as that appellee had at the time of his injury, as described and demonstrated by the engineer and appellee before the jury. There is nothing in the record to show that these positions were not essentially the same.

The court, therefore, did not err in admitting the testimony of the witnesses who made the experiments on behalf of the appellee.

(3) The remarks of the attorney for the 'appellee, in his closing argument, to the effect that he thought “that the old engineer was blind,” was but an expression of his opinion, and not improper. He had the right to draw such deduction, stating it as his own conclusion, from the evidence, however farfetched it may have been. The jury, as sensible men, could not have been prejudiced against appellant on account of this argument. The jury heard the testimony of the engineer and the other witnesses and knew whether the attorney’s conclusion was correct or not. It was a statement of the attorney’s belief from the evidence that “the old engineer was blind,” and'not a statement that such was a fact.

(4)

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Bluebook (online)
171 S.W. 115, 115 Ark. 101, 1914 Ark. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-iron-mountain-southern-railway-co-v-mcmichael-ark-1914.