St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Ristine

219 S.W. 515, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 190
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 1920
DocketNo. 6152.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 219 S.W. 515 (St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Ristine) 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
St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Ristine, 219 S.W. 515, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 190 (Tex. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

BRADY, J.

Appellee Willie Ristine, joined by her husband, C. T. Ristine, sued appellant for damages for personal injuries alleged to have resulted from the negligence of appellant. Briefly stated, the alleged negligence consisted in appellant’s having placed a refrigerator car on its tracks in one of the public streets of Waco, and in leaving the door of such car open, or permitting it to be left open, at right angles to the car; the door having an iron bar or cleat, which extended out from the car a distance of about six feet. Appellee was riding in an automobile, driven by another person, along such street,*at night, and it was alleged that the driver drove the automobile into and against the door and iron bar without knowledge of such obstruction, and that the Impact greatly damaged the auto and caused serious personal injuries to appellee.

The railway company pleaded several special defenses, which are indicated by the special issues submitted to the jury, and which will be hereinafter stated. Upon the verdict of the jury, the court entered judgment for appellee for the sum of $750.

The special findings of the jury are substantially to this effect: That the railway company left the door of the car open, or permitted it to be left and to remain open, at the time and place of the accident, and that such conduct was negligence and proximately caused the injuries; that appellee was not intoxicated at tlje time and place of the accident; that the speed at which the automobile was being driven on the occasion in question was 10 miles per hour ;■ that the rate of speed of the car did not proximately contribute to the injuries, nor did appellee voluntarily remain in the car without warning the operator of the danger from the speed of the car; that appellee suffered damages on account of her injuries in the sum of $750.

Opinion.

The first assignment of error complains of the action of the trial court in excluding certain testimony of the witness Newton Humphries, offered by appellant and objected to by appellee. The excluded testimony was to the effect that witness, who was a deputy sheriff of Washington county, at Brenham, Tex., at the instance of appellant, met appellee, who was then Willie Bobo, at the house or place of Jennie Morris, which was a house of ill repute, and that appellee was an inmate of such place, and as such received the visits of men. This testimony was offered after appellee had testified that she had, previous to her injuries, prepared herself for the work of a nurse, and that at the time she was injured she was on her way to Marlin, Tex., to nurse a patient, and shortly thereafter, while at Jennie Morris’ house, in the town of Brenham, Tex., she acted as nurse for a sick lady for the period of two weeks, for which she earned and received the sum of $25 per week; that the lady for whom she was nursing was removed to Houston, and desired her to continue as her nurse, but on account of appellee’s physical condition, resulting from such injuries, she was unable to accompany the patient, and returned home; and she having further testified that her name was Willie Ooble, and then Willie Bobo, and now Willie Ristine.

The bill of exception does not show upon what ground plaintiff objected to this testimony, nor what objection was sustained. We are therefore unable to determine that *517 there was any error in excluding the testimony. Furthermore, this witness was allowed to testify, and did testify, to facts substantially the same as embraced in the testimony offered and excluded. We have examined his testimony in full in the statement of facts, and find that this witness described his visit to Jennie Morris’ house on December 3, 1916, and his having danced with appellee, and her 'actions and conduct on that occasion, and that of other persons in the house, sufficiently to indicate the point here sought to be made. Moreover, the testimony, if admitted, would not have contradicted appellee’s testimony that she had acted as nurse at such place, and that she did not continue in that capacity because of her physical condition. This was the only material issue upon which the testimony bore, and we agree with appellee that it was irrelevant and immaterial, if true, that she went by the name of Dolly Smith at Jennie Morris’ house, and that such place was a house of ill repute, and that she received men there.

This was not a case in which the injured party claimed any damages for shame or humiliation. Her action for damages was based entirely upon physical injuries and sufferings, and such mental anguish as resulted from physical injuries. There were ‘no damages sought for outraged feelings or sensibilities, in which cases it has been held error to exclude testimony of this character, and in which such testimony is peculiarly admissible and material.

For the reasons above indicated, we overrule the first assignment.

The second to the sixth assignments, inclusive, are grouped, and are to the effect that the court should have given a peremptory instruction for appellant, and that it was error to submit the issue of negligence to the jury at all, because the undisputed evidence showed that the refrigerator car was delivered by the railway company to the compress company with its door closed, locked, and sealed; that the door was opened by the employés of the compress company, and there was no evidence that any of appellant’s employés had anything to do with it; and it was not shown that the condition of the door was known to the railway company, or that it had any opportunity to learn of such condition prior to the accident In other words, it is claimed that there was no evidence whatever to authorize the submission of the issue of negligence.

The undisputed evidence shows that the refrigerator car, at the time of the accident, was on the track of appellant, and had been placed there by its employés. It is also un-controverted that the purpose of placing the car at_ the particular location was to unload the cotton at the compress platform. It was spotted in the forenoon of the day of the accident, and the work of unloading was completed early in the afternoon. The car was not reloaded, and went out of Waco empty. Thus it appears that the car remained on the track, after the unloading was completed, the greater part of the afternoon, and for several hours at night before the accident. According to testimony introduced by appellant, the work of unloading was supervised by an employé of the compress company.. During the unloading, however, the number of bales and the condition of the cotton was inspected by Mr. Karels, who was interchange clerk for appellant at the time of the trial, but was an inspector for the Western Weighing & Inspection Company at the time of the' accident. He made his records for the latter company, but these records were used to assist the railway company in case claims for damages were presented. No explanation was offered by the railway company for the leaving open of the door, which was daimed to have caused the accident, nor for not having sooner removed the car from the scene. Its own testimony was to the effect that the employés of the compress company closed the door, under the instruction of the person who was supervising the unloading.

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Related

Nussbaum v. Anthony
214 S.W.2d 686 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1948)
St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas v. Ristine
234 S.W. 1086 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1921)

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Bluebook (online)
219 S.W. 515, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-southwestern-ry-co-of-texas-v-ristine-texapp-1920.