Wells Fargo & Co. Express v. Keeler

173 S.W. 926, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1418
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 12, 1914
DocketNo. 8052.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 173 S.W. 926 (Wells Fargo & Co. Express v. Keeler) 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
Wells Fargo & Co. Express v. Keeler, 173 S.W. 926, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1418 (Tex. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

BUCK, J.

This was a suit brought by D. D. Keeler, appellee, in the justice court of Cooke county, Tex., to recover of appellant the sum of $143.45i as damages alleged to have been caused to appellee’s automobile on May 20, 1913, on account of appellant’s negligence. Appellee alleged, in substance, in the justice’s court, that on said date, in the negligent operation of its express wagon, appellant ran into and against the delivery automobile owned by the appellee, breaking and damaging the same in said amount, for which he sought judgment. From a judgment in favor of appellee for the amount sued for in the justice court, an appeal was perfected to the county court.

Appellee filed an amended cause of action in the county court, setting up, in addition to the general ground of negligence relied on in the justice court, the further ground that the animal driven by the appellant was a vicious, unruly, and unsafe animal, and alleged items of damage as follows: One set of automobile tires $86; repairing top, side, and body of car $36.95; hire of horse and wagon during repair of car $19.50. In the county court appellant answered by general and special exceptions, by general and specific denial, and further pleaded that the conduct of the horse was due to its inherent nature, and that the items of damages claimed were grossly excessive, and that appellee was guilty of contributory negligence in placing said automobile in a place of danger and permitting it to remain there, it being the usual, and customary place where appellant loaded goods, appellant being at said place by the invitation of appel-lee; that the damage was the result of an accident over which appellant had no control, and that it used ordinary care to prevent the injury; that the item of $86 was in the nature of special damages of which appellant had no notice, and that the appellee had invited the appellant to come to the place where the accident occurred with its wagon to receive a consignment of goods, as was its custom, and that appellee was well acquainted with the ground and the situation, and that he was negligent in, not *927 providing a reasonably safe place in which tbe goods might be received, and in leaving the automobile standing in a place of danger.

The cause was tried before a jury in the county court, and resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee in the sum of $143.45, and from this judgment appellant has perfected its appeal to this court.

,[1] In appellant’s first assignment of error it complains that:

“The court erred in permitting the plaintiff, D. D. Keeler, to testify as to the cost of the hire of a buggy and horse during the time the automobile was being repaired.”

This defendant objected to said evidence as immaterial, incompetent, and irrelevant, and not a proper element of damages, as shown by defendant’s bill of exceptions No. 2. In the seventh assignment of error appellant complains of the failure of the court in not sustaining its motion for a new trial and the twenty-fifth ground thereof, which was as follows:

“The court erred in refusing the sixth special instruction requested by defendant, reading as follows: ‘You are instructed that the plaintiff cannot recover for the money paid for the horse and buggy hire while said automobile was being repaired, if any.’ ”

And in the twelfth assignment of error the appellant complains that: ,

“The court erred in the sixth paragraph of his charge to the jury, reading as follows: ‘If you find from the evidence .that the plaintiff is entitled to recover under the foregoing instructions, then you are further instructed that, if you find from the evidence that the plaintiff was compelled to hire a horse and wagon to carry on his business during the time his said automobile was being repaired then you will find in favor of the plaintiff for such sum also as he is (was) compelled to pay out for such horse during the time just mentioned, in addition to the sum expended, or to be expended, by him in repairing his said automobile? ”

These three assignments we will consider together.

Appellant’s objection to the evidence with reference to the hire of a horse and buggy by appellee during the time his automobile was undergoing repairs, and to the failure of the court to give its special charge requested with reference to said item of damages, and the action of the court in giving the charge submitted to the jury on the ground that plaintiff, in the court below, was not entitled to recover damages for the hire of said horse and buggy, and that said item of damages did not constitute the true and legal measure of damages, and that therefore any evidence with reference thereto was immaterial and irrelevant. We think that undoubtedly the true measure of damages to which appellee was entitled, if at all, was the difference in the reasonable market value of the automobile just before and just after the injury complained of, and that under proper pleading he would have been entitled to recover the further sum, to wit, the reasonable value for the use of said automobile during the time he was necessarily deprived thereof while undergoing the repairs. To shed light upon the tenability of these three assignments and the discussion by this court with reference thereto, it might be well to set out in full the plaintiff’s pleading in the county court, to wit:

“Plaintiff says that on May 20, 1913, the defendant, its agents, servants, and employes, in the negligent operation of its express and delivery wagon, in the city of Gainesville, negligently ran into, against and over the delivery automobile owned and belonging to plaintiff, breaking, crushing, and demolishing the said automobile; that, in addition to the negligence as stated, the horse defendant used and caused to be driven to its said delivery wagon was a vicious, unruly, and unsafe animal; that, because of plamtiff’s automobile having been run over and against as aforesaid, the same was injured and damaged in the sum of $193.45 as follows: One set of automobile tires $86; repairing top, seat, and body of car $36.95; and hire of horse and wagon during repair of ear $19.50; total, $193.-45.”

This amount is evidently an error in the transcript, and should be $142.45. In adding up said items in the complaint filed in the justice court, the total was made $143.45; thus making an error in the justice court of $1 and in the county court of $51; but we will discuss the assignments without reference to said error in addition, in that no error is assigned by reason of said mistakes in calculation. The writer of this opinion is inclined to the view that, inasmuch as the measure of damages would be the difference between the reasonable market value of the automobile immediately before and immediately after the injury complained of, as held by the cases cited by appellant— to wit, Cooper v. Knight, 147 S. W. 349; Hughes v. City, 12 Tex. Civ. App. 178, 33 S. W. 607; Railway Co. v. Levy, 45 Tex. Civ. App. 373, 100 S. W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 S.W. 926, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-fargo-co-express-v-keeler-texapp-1914.