Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Hilgartner

149 S.W. 1091, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 761
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 6, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 149 S.W. 1091 (Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Hilgartner) 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
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Hilgartner, 149 S.W. 1091, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 761 (Tex. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

HIGGINS, J.

This is an appeal by the appellant from a judgment in favor of ap-pellee for damages resulting from a collision between an automobile car driven by the ap-pellee and a railway train of the appellant. The accident occurred about 1 o’clock at night, in the city of El Paso, and at the intersection of Oregon and Main streets. The track of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company, upon which appellant’s train was being operated at the time of the accident, runs east and west upon Main street, and appellee was driving his car upon Oregon southward, and collided with the train of appellant, which consisted of an engine and several passenger cars, moving in a westerly direction; the engine being upon the eastern end of the train.

[1 ] The first assignment of error complains of the refusal of the court to grant the petition for the removal of the cause to the federal court, but is not considered, for the reason that counsel in open court waived this assignment and requested the court not to consider same.

The third and fourth assignments complain of the refusal of the court to peremptorily instruct a verdict for the defendant, based upon the proposition that the testimony in the case conclusively shows as a matter of law that appellee was guilty of negligence directly contributing to the accident. These assignments are overruled. It is unnecessary for us to discuss the evidence in detail, but it is sufficient to say that under the testimony disclosed by this record the issue of contributory negligence was properly submitted to the jury.

[2] The fifth assignment of error is that the court erred in overruling appellant’s objection to the introduction of railroad rules Nos. 24 and 101. The rules referred to were certain private rules and regulations promulgated by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company, and it was admitted that these rules were binding upon the appellant when it was operating its train upon the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio tracks, and, as heretofore stated, appellant’s train causing the injury at the time thereof was being operated upon the track of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio in the city of El Paso. The rules read as follows:

“24. When cars are pushed by an engine (except when shifting or making up trains in • yards) a white light must be displayed on the front of the leading car by night.”
“102. When cars are pushed by an engine (except when shifting and making up trains in yards) a flagman must take a conspicuous position on the front of the leading car and signal the engineman in case of need.”

The objections urged are that they are irrelevant and immaterial and were not the law, were not made for the benefit of plaintiff or known to him or to the public, and that proof of the violation of the same, if any, would not establish or tend to establish that the servants of the defendant were not using due care in operating said cars, and that the introduction of such rules was calculated to injure the defendant.

Without discussing these objections in detail, it is sufficient to say that they were properly admitted in evidence, because they were rules made and promulgated by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company for *tho government of its em-lfloyds in operating trains within its yards so as to properly protect and avert injury to persons lawfully upon or crossing its tracks. It is immaterial whether they were made for the particular benefit of plaintiff or known to him or to the public, but was evidence of the proper precaution that should be taken in operating trains at the place this accident occurred, and the violation of such regulations would be a proper matter for consideration by the jury in passing upon the question of negligence.

[3] The sixth assignment is as follows: “The court erred, in the fourth paragraph of its charge, in instructing the jury that it was, among other things, recited in said paragraph, ‘the duty of the railroad company in the movement and operation of its trains at night, to place or display a white light on the front of the leading car, and to place a flagman at a conspicuous place on the front of the leading ear.’ ”

The first proposition urged in support thereof is that it was erroneous because based upon evidence that should have been excluded by the court. For the reasons just indicated, we are of the opinion that the rules upon which this portion of the charge is predicated were properly admissible in evidence. The further proposition is urged that it was upon the weight of the evidence. Considered alone, it might so appear; but the uncontroverted evidence showed, by the rules quoted and otherwise, that it was the defendant’s duty to have a light and flagman upon the rear end of its train, and that it was the duty of the flagman to signal the engineman in case of need. It was therefore not improper for the charge to so state the defendant’s duty. Pac. Express Co. v. Walters, 42 Tex. Civ. App. 355, 93 S. W. 496; Railway Co. v. James (Sup.) 10 S. W. 332; Railway Co. v. Connell, 29 S. W. 557.

[4] From an examination of the whole of this paragraph, it will thus be noted, also, that, while the court directly instructed the jury that it was its duty to place or display a white light on the front of the leading car and place a flagman thereon to signal *1093 the engineman in case of need, the question whether or not a failure so to do was negligence was left to the jury for their determination, and, taken as a whole, we think the question of negligence predicated upon the failure to observe the rules was fairly submitted. Furthermore, the language complained of occurred in the preliminary portion of the charge in which the court was giving its general instructions to the jury as to the duties of the defendant, and-not in that part which affirmatively submitted the case to the jury for its finding, and the manner in whicn the case was so- submitted to the jury for its finding upon this issue is not complained of, and was properly submitted and precludes the idea that the appellant was injured by that portion of the charge here complained of. Railway Co. v. Bank, 47 Tex. Civ. App. 283, 112 S. W. 591; Thompson v. Compress Co., 48 Tex. Civ. App. 235, 106 S. W. 473.

[5] Error is assigned to the action of the court in giving a special instruction requested by the appellee, as follows: “You are instructed that even though you may believe from the evidence that at and just prior to the collision complained of the plaintiff was running his automobile at an excessive rate of speed and in excess of the speed as provided by the ordinances of the city of El Paso for said place, and that plaintiff was negligent in so doing, if he did so, but if you further believe from the evidence that the speed at which plaintiff was running his automobile did not proximateiy cause or contribute to cause the collision and consequent injuries, if any, to plaintiff and his automobile, then in such event, if you so find, you are1 instructed that you cannot find against the plaintiff on the ground of his running his automobile at an excessive rate of speed in excess of the speed limit at such place, if he did so.”

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Bluebook (online)
149 S.W. 1091, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 761, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-p-ry-co-v-hilgartner-texapp-1912.