Missouri K. T. R. Co. v. May
| Decision Date | 02 April 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. B-8722,MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS,B-8722 |
| Citation | 600 S.W.2d 755 |
| Parties | RAILROAD COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Craig B. MAY, Respondent. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Naman, Howell, Smith, Lee & Muldrow, Louis S. Muldrow and Larry O. Brady, Waco, for petitioner.
James R. Warncke, San Antonio, for respondent.
This is an appeal of a personal injury suit arising from an auto-train collision at a railroad crossing. One night a motor vehicle driven by Craig May collided with a freight train owned by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company. At the time of the accident, the train was stopped and blocking the road on which May was traveling. The railroad crossing was marked only by an unlighted crossbuck sign. The crossing had no warning signals to alert motorists that a train was either approaching or occupying the crossing.
May filed suit against the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company seeking to recover his damages. May alleged that the railroad crossing in question was extra-hazardous and that the defendant railroad company was negligent in failing to install adequate warning devices. Trial was to a jury, and on its verdict, the trial court entered judgment that the plaintiff May take nothing from the defendant railroad company. The court of civil appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause for new trial. 583 S.W.2d 694.
The court of civil appeals held that the trial court erred in three respects. First, the court of civil appeals held that the trial court erred in rejecting evidence of other accidents occurring under similar circumstances at the crossing in question. Second, the court of civil appeals held that the trial court erred in admitting a blood-alcohol test prepared from a sample of May's blood taken shortly after his arrival at Scott & White Hospital. Third, the court of civil appeals held that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing a trial amendment tendered by May at the close of his case-in-chief.
We agree that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of certain similar accidents. Evidence of earlier accidents which occurred under reasonably similar but not necessarily identical circumstances was admissible. See Missouri Pac. RR. v. Cooper, 563 S.W.2d 233, 236 (Tex.1978). The exclusion of these similar accidents, offered by May to support his contention that the crossing was extra-hazardous, was reasonably calculated to cause and probably did cause the rendition of an improper judgment in the case. Tex.R.Civ.P. 434, 503.
Our disposition of the present application for writ of...
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CHAPTER 3.I. Motion Authorities
...of other lawsuits or claims occurring under reasonable similar circumstances admissible). Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. Co. v. May, 600 S.W.2d 755, 756 (Tex. 1980) ("Evidence of earlier accidents which occurred under reasonably similar but not necessarily identical circumstances [is] admissibl......
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CHAPTER 10.I. Motion Authorities
...condition and refusal to correct it). May v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. Co., 583 S.W.2d 694, 697 (Tex. Civ. App.—Waco 1979), writ ref'd, 600 S.W.2d 755 (Tex. 1980) (trial court erred excluding evidence of other prior incidents to show existence of dangerous condition and defendant's notice ......