Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Nunn

98 F. 963, 39 C.C.A. 364, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2780
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedDecember 19, 1899
DocketNo. 837
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 98 F. 963 (Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Nunn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 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. Nunn, 98 F. 963, 39 C.C.A. 364, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2780 (5th Cir. 1899).

Opinion

MeCORAIICK, Circuit Judge.

In this case the single error assigned is presented thus:

“First. The court erred in refusing to give the special charge requested by the defendant, which is as follows: ‘In this case the defendant requests the court 1o instruct the jury as follows: The plaintiff has failed by its evidence to make a cause of action against the defendant, and you are instructed to re[964]*964turn a verdict for the defendant.’ The ground of this error is that the plaintiff, on the whole ease, failed to make out his case against the defendant. He failed to show any actionable negligence on j rt of the defendant in any way, or that it did anything in the premises but what was its duty to the plaintiff’s wife at the time, or that it negligently did or performed such duty. It is shown that the plaintiff’s wife was guilty of contributing negligence in not leaving- the train when she arrived at her destination. The train waited long enough for her to have done so before it started on its journey.”

On the trial more than 20 witnesses were examined. It is not disputed that the plaintiff’s wife was a passenger on the defendant's train at the time and place alleged in the declaration. The plaintiff claims that she was seriously injured by the negligence of the defendant’s servants in failing to give her timely and proper notice that the train was about to arrive or had arrived at the station at which they knew she was to leave the train; that, upon the train's stopping at that station, she, by looking out of the window, saw that it had arrived at Roscoe, and promptly endeavored to leave the train; that by the time she ivas able to move a few feet from her seat towards the door of exit the train began to move ahead, and when she had reached the doorway the train was stopped by the servants of the defendant company so suddenly and abruptly that she was brought in contact with some part of the car by the door, and without any fault on her part, from which she received serious injury. The plaintiff and his wife live at Roscoe, Nolan county, Tex., a station in that county west of Sweetwater, the county seat. She is 33 years old; has 8 children, the age of the oldest being 15 years. She testified that the last time she was weighed her weight was 176 pounds. She testified that as the train reached Roscoe that day she did not hear the station called; that, if it was called, she did not hear it. Another witness — Miss Fannie Patterson — testified that: “As the train was approaching Roscoe that day, a station was called, but not Roscoe. Eskota was the station that was called when the train approached Roscoe.” Eskota is a station east of Sweetwater.

The plaintiff’s wife, Mrs. Fannie Nunn, testified:

“I came to Abilene on the morning train, and went back on the evening train the same day. When the evening train passed Abilene that day, I bought my ticket, and got on the train. I got my ticket at the ticket office, and got on that train by virtue of a first-class ticket. The train was on time. It was four o’clock and some minutes in the afternoon when the train got to Abilene. I went to Roscoe on that train, and was taken off the train at Roscoe. I was hurt in trying to get off the train at Roscoe that day. The best I remember, I was sitting about middleways of the coach, or might have been a seat or two from it. I was sitting on the south side of the coach. I took that seat when I got on at Abilene, and remained in that seat until I got to Roscoe, and went to get off. I went to get off at Roscoe, because that was the end of my destination. I arose from the seat to get off when I noticed that the train had stopped, and when I had got'about two or three seats from where I was sitting the train started. I knew I was at Roscoe by the stop of the train. I was reading a book, and when the train stopped it moved mo in my seat, and I looked out of the window, and saw I was at home. Then I closed my hook, and gathered my bundles to get up and start, and dropped my purse, and stooped down to pick it up hurriedly, and started out. I got to the door of the train. When I arose from my seat, and got the purse, and picked it up, and started out, the train was not moving when I started out. I started towards the west door. The train remained standing until I was two or three [965]*965scats from where X was sitting, ana then it started again. I just kept on going to the door. I got to the west door of the coach, and there was a man in the next coach that saw I wanted to get off, and he rung the bell, and the train, stopped. It just stopped, all of a sudden, and jerked me back against the door. I think I struck the door. I struck something. That was the west door of the coach,- — -the outward door, — and that is the door that I think X struck, and it just jerked me around. That was in the negro part of the coach. When the train stopped, I fell back. 1 did not fall off my feet. It just jerked me around. It just seemed like it stopped my circulation. And the conductor, Air. Garrett, was the first one I saw, and 1 told him to come to me, that I was-hurt, and he was coining up behind, and he says, ‘Oh, I hope not;’ and I began 1o turn blind then, and T says, ‘Oh, take hold of me; I feel like I am going to faint:’ and ho came up, and, of course, he hesitated to take hold of me; and I told him the second time, I says, ‘Take hold of me, and don’t let me fall,’ and then he took hold of me, and then I saw Byron McBurnett coming to the coach, and I called to him to come to me, that I was hurt; and I fainted, and could not testify positively about anything until they put me in a chair. That chair was on the ground. They say I was carried into the depot, but I don’t know. I was afterwards carried home. When I struck something in the car, the bruise that was made was right low in my back. After that I was carried home, and remained there a long time, and confined to my bed in my room. I was not in bed all the time, but I was confined to my room three months, and after the three months I got so I could go about on crutches. The effect of that bruise on my back was that it just seemed like when they moved me it nearly killed me.”

Mrs. Jennie Campbell testified that several days after the injury was received she saw a bruised place on Mrs. Nunn’s back; that it was about the small of the back somewhere, three or four inches long, and ran up and down the spine; that when the witness went to rub her hand over it Mrs. Nunn jumped, and told her not to do that; that Mrs. Nunn’s actions at the time indicated that the place was very sore.

S. M. Garrett, the conductor, testified:

“I saw her [Mrs. Nunn] before she went through the partition. There was a partition in the car, — one part for colored and one for white, — and I saw her before she went into the colored part; just before that. She was passing out just as 1 came in. I followed her right on through, and was just a few paces behind her, and overtook her before she got to the door.

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Bluebook (online)
98 F. 963, 39 C.C.A. 364, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-p-ry-co-v-nunn-ca5-1899.