International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Knight

• Citation: 45 S.W. 167
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL & G. N. RY. CO. v. KNIGHT.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>
• Decision Date: 03 February 1898
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas

45 S.W. 167

INTERNATIONAL & G. N. RY. CO. v. KNIGHT.¹

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

February 3, 1898.

Appeal from district court, Walker county; J. M. Smither, Judge.

Action by W. C. Knight against the International & Great Northern Railway Company. From a judgment in plaintiff's favor, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Geo. H. Gould, for appellant. Williams & Smithers and Powell, Ball & Randolph, for appellee.

WILLIAMS, J.

The judgment from which this appeal is taken was for $1,500, recovered against appellant by appellee as damages sustained by him from the death of his son, Clark Knight, who was killed in a collision between a wagon, in which he was crossing appellant's road, and an engine operated by appellant's employés. The collision occurred upon a public crossing upon the railroad at Riverside. At this place appellant's road runs north and south. On the west side are the station house, and still further west the stores and buildings of the town. On the east side is open country, except the structures along the track. These consist of a cotton platform, and south of that a seed house, a stock pen, another seed house, and then the section house, all of which stand close to the tracks. Immediately north of the cotton platform a public road runs east and west, and crosses the tracks just west of the northwest corner of the platform. The side track runs close to the platform at its western edge, and the main track is further west,—10 or 11 feet from the western rail of the side track. At the time when deceased was killed, there was cotton upon the platform, a box car upon the side track, the north end of which was about opposite to the northwest corner of the platform, and piles of cross-ties, seven or eight feet high, between the houses south of the platform. Deceased, having unloaded the wagon driven by him, and placed the cotton with which it was loaded upon the platform at its eastern side, drove around to its northern side, to the dirt road. A train from the north was unloading freight at the station, and its forward cars were upon the crossing; and another train had arrived from the south, and stopped some distance south of the section house, waiting for the other train to finish the work at the station, and back northwards and go upon a siding in order that it might pass. Deceased did not know of the presence of this train, and his view of the track to the southward was completely obstructed by the objects mentioned. When the train at the crossing finished delivering its freight, it backed north, and, after the crossing was cleared, deceased started to drive across the tracks; and the other train, without ringing its bell or blowing its whistle, or giving other warning, moved northward at the rate of three or four miles an hour, and struck the wagon and team of deceased upon the crossing, carrying them some distance up the track, and finally upsetting the wagon upon the deceased, and inflicting the injuries from which he died. The evidence conflicted upon the issue as to the giving of the signals, but there is enough to justify the conclusion that they were not given, and that in the omission to give them, and in approaching this crossing under the circumstances indicated, the employés were guilty of negligence which was the proximate cause of Knight's death. The evidence also justifies the conclusion that deceased was not guilty of negligence in attempting, as he did, to cross. And we accordingly adopt both conclusions, in accordance with the finding of the jury.

Evidence to the effect that deceased, who was a little less than 20 years old when killed, had repeatedly declared his purpose to always remain with and take care of his father, was admissible under the allegation that the labor and earnings of deceased had contributed greatly to the support...