Williams v. Voight

264 S.W.2d 454, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 1874
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 20, 1954
Docket10193
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 264 S.W.2d 454 (Williams v. Voight) 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
Williams v. Voight, 264 S.W.2d 454, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 1874 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

ARCHER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of appellee and against appellant growing out of an automobile collision in the City of Austin, Texas.

*455 The appeal is before this Court on seventeen points assigned as error. The principal complaints of appellant are that the case should be reversed because the answers of the jury to Special Issues Nos. 18 and 19 are in direct conflict with the jury’s answers to Special Issues Nos. 1 to 14, inclusive, and Special Issue No. 20, and such conflicting findings, all being on material issues of equal importance, are irreconcilable and fatal and no judgment should have been rendered thereon; that the case should be reversed because the answer of the jury to Special Issue No. 13, inquiring whether plaintiff was negligent in failing to move his car to a place nearer the curb or some place on East Avenue after observing the approach of the police car was negligence, was in direct conflict with the evidence and receives no support in the evidence given upon the trial; that the case should be reversed because plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law in failing to move his car to a place nearer the curb on East Avenue after hearing the siren of the approaching police car, such failure violating Art. 6701d, Sec. 75, Vernon’s Annotated Revised Civil Statutes of Texas; that the case should be reversed because one who is guilty of negligence himself, by which his injury is occasioned, or which proximately contributes to his injury cannot recover of one whose negligence he alleges caused his injury, although the latter may have been likewise guilty of negligence; that the court erred in refusing to pre-emptorily instruct the jury for defendant since plaintiff was admittedly guilty of negligence in blocking the street and such negligence concurred with that of the defendant, if any, in producing the results complained of by plaintiff; that the court erred in refusing to render judgment for defendant because the jury found, in answer to Special Issues Nos. 18 and 19, that defendant was acting under an emergency and did what an ordinarily prudent person would have done under the same or similar circumstances; that the court erred in refusing to submit defendant’s requested special instruction in connection with Special Issues Nos. 15, 16 and 17 as such instruction was a necessary aid to the jury in properly ' answering the issues and without such instruction they could not properly pass upon and render a verdict on these issues; and that case should be reversed because if the defendant knew or had reason to believe that the officer was a duly authorized police officer, defendant was justified in obeying him to “Follow me,” and it cannot be maintained that defendant, in assisting a known and recognized officer, in the discharge of his duties, acted to his own peril.

The other points while not waived were not insisted on by the appellant in view of his contentions as to the assigned errors in the other points.

The collision occurred at about 7 a. m. on the 2nd day of March, 1952, on 12th Street at its intersection with East Avenue.

It appears that appellee was a policeman and had been for more than twenty years and, under a contract with the City, was feeding the prisoners and was going West on 12th Street in his automobile carrying meals to the city jail, and stopped at a stop sign at the intersection, at which time he heard a siren but could not tell from which direction the sound came for a matter of seconds, when a police car driven by another city officer drove to the left of Voight’s car, traveling at a slow rate of speed, and within a few seconds the appellant’s car struck the right rear of appellee’s car and damages were suffered by both Voight and his car.

There is no complaint that the damages assessed by the jury are excessive.

The appellant was a Sergeant in the Army, stationed at Fort Hood and had driven to Austin with other soldiers on March 1st, and had had refreshments at a local dub in East Austin, had attended a dance and had slept a while in his car and then gone to the club for coffee, at which time he heard a commotion outside and went to the scene and saw “one of his soldiers” bleeding.

City officer Allen was there and had ordered an ambulance at which time appellant told the officer he had a car and would *456 take the injured man to the hospital and requested Officer Allen to show him the way, which Allen did.

Appellant contends that appellee was negligent in failing to move his car to a point near the curb, or to some place on East Avenue after hearing the siren of the approaching police car, and thereby contributed to his injury and is guilty of negligence in blocking the street, and that the appellant was acting under an emergency and did what a prudent person would have done, and that since he had been told to follow the officer, he was not acting to his peril, and that because a car turned East onto East 12th Street created a condition arising suddenly and that such condition was not caused by appellant and that because after the emergency arose he did what an ordinary prudent person would have done and he is not liable for the injuries caused by him.

Appellee claims that Allen had nothing to do with putting the wounded man in appellant’s car.

Special Issues 18 and 19 are as submitted:

“Special Issue No. 18.
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that George E. Williams was, at the time of the. collision in question, acting under an emergency ? •
“Answer this special issue ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
“Answer: Yes.
“In connection with the foregoing special issue, you are instructed that the word ‘emergency’, as used herein, . means a condition arising suddenly and unexpectedly, and not proximately caused by the negligent act or acts of George E. Williams and which called . for immediate action on his part without time for deliberation.
“If you have answered the foregoing special issue ‘Yes’, then you will answer the following special issue; otherwise, you need not answer the same.
“Special Issue No. 19.
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that after the emergency, if any, arose, George E. Williams did what an ordinary prudent person would have done under the same or similar circumstances ?
“Answer this special issue ‘Yes’ or ' ‘No’.
“Answer: Yes.”

It is noted that no subsidiary finding was requested or made that such emergency was the sole proximate cause of the collision.

We do not believe the effect of the answers of the jury to Special Issues Nos. 18 and .19 had any legal consequence and therefore do not conflict with any of Special Issues Nos. 1 to 14 inclusive or to Special Issue No. 20.

The trial court did not err in overruling appellant’s objections to the submission of Special Issues Nos. 1 to 12 inclusive, or in overruling appellant’s motion to disregard the jury’s answers to any of said issues.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Yarborough v. Berner
467 S.W.2d 188 (Texas Supreme Court, 1971)
Vaughn v. Glazener
459 S.W.2d 898 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Charles T. Picton Lumber Company v. Redden
452 S.W.2d 713 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Washington v. Griffin
427 S.W.2d 136 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Young
403 S.W.2d 898 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)
Prasek v. Dudley
395 S.W.2d 876 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1965)
McCarty v. Purser
373 S.W.2d 293 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1963)
Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Flowers
336 S.W.2d 235 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1960)
Houston v. Shaw Transports Company
296 S.W.2d 631 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)
City Transportation Company of Dallas v. Vatsures
278 S.W.2d 373 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
264 S.W.2d 454, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 1874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-voight-texapp-1954.