Appeal from Circuit Court, Calhoun County; Geo. W. Hays, Judge.
Action by Willa Britton against the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Willa Britton instituted this action against the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the railway company while she was riding as a passenger on one of its trains. She originally brought an action in the federal court, where there was a verdict and judgment in her favor. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment on the ground that the testimony tending to support her cause of action was opposed to the physical facts. See St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Britton, 190 Fed. 316, 111 C. C. A. 216. Upon the remand of the case the plaintiff took a nonsuit, and afterwards, on the 11th day of December, 1911, commenced the present suit against the defendant railway company in the Calhoun circuit court, and a trial was had at the July term, 1912, of said court.
Willa Britton, for herself, testified substantially as follows: "I am 21 years of age, and live at Little Rock, Ark. I am 5 feet and 8 inches tall, and at the time I received the injuries complained of was perfectly well, and weighed about 165 pounds. I have had several operations performed. On June 27, 1907, I had a curettement done by Dr. Miller of Little Rock. On September 11, 1909, Dr. Ellis, of Chattanooga, Tenn., removed a cyst off of my right ovary. The incision was made on the right side. I had been in good health after the curettement up to that time. I was in bed about two weeks from that operation. On the 13th of December, 1909, Dr. Ellis operated for appendicitis, and my appendix was removed. In February, 1910, I came back to Little Rock, and on the 18th of April following Dr. Miller operated on me for gallstones. He cut into my abdomen and found no gallstones, but said I had intestinal adhesions, and that this was the cause of the pain in my right side. I had been up after this operation about eight weeks, when I took a trip to England, Ark. My wounds had healed entirely, and except for the intestinal adhesions I was in perfect health. I suffered great pain from the adhesions
and Dr. Miller said they were caused from exercise. The pains would occur sometimes one in two or three weeks, and sometimes two in one week. To alleviate my suffering, they would give me hot baths, hypodermics of morphine, and massages. When I went to England, as above stated, I went out into the country to visit relatives, and stayed three days. On the 11th day of July, 1910, I came to England, and late in the afternoon boarded a train for Little Rock. I took passage in the rear coach, and sat about the middle of the coach, on the left-hand side of the aisle. On the right-hand side of the coach every seat was full of passengers, and there was one on the left-hand side besides me. Two ladies were on board. The seats in the coach were cushioned seats, and not chairs. Something like two miles out of England there was an accident. There was a terrible impact, and it threw my body against the window. I had a severe pain to strike me in the side and back. The train ran a little distance, then stopped, and made another little jump. My side hurt me considerably, and after a while got a little better. When the train came to a stop, I walked to the water cooler, and my side and back pained me severely. When I walked to the back end of the car, I saw that the ties were broken for quite a distance back, and could see where the wheels had cut into the ties. When the accident happened, I was sitting on a seat, facing the front of the car, and looking out towards the aisle. The shutter to my window was broken, and the sun was coming in the car. I shifted my position so that I was sitting near the center of the seat. I cannot give the exact position, but know that I had my back towards the window, so that the sun would not shine in my face, and I was looking at the scenery out of the window just in front of me on the opposite side of the car. The impact of the train threw my back and side against the window sill, which projected over the window I judge about three inches. [Here the witness indicates on the back of her counsel that part of her body and side which struck the window sill.] The window sill struck me on the left side. The accident happened about 6 o'clock in the afternoon. At the time I received the injury the train was running along I suppose at the average rate of speed, and all at once there was a lunge, and it threw me against the window, and I suffered severe pain. It was just for the distance the train run. It was just a bounding, and it was very rough. After the train started again, I was suffering very much, and inquired if there was any doctor aboard the train. There was not. One of the ladies on the car bathed my face with water, and did what she could for me. It was nearly 8 o'clock in the evening when we reached Little Rock. When we arrived there, the conductor and train auditor came to my seat. I put my arms around their shoulders, and they supported me and carried me out of the car. I could make a step, but was suffering severely. They sat me down on the car steps, and then got an invalid's chair, and carried me into the station. They telegraphed for the company's physician, and one of them came. He gave me a hypodermic of some kind. Later I was carried in an ambulance to the Physicians' & Surgeons' Hospital in Little Rock. One of the company's physicians directed a nurse to sit by me during the night, and he also gave me another hypodermic. There was no examination of my back made until the next morning. On the morning of the 12th inst. Dr. Runyan examined my back, and told me I had a very bad sprained back. He directed the nurse to rub it with liniment, and strip with adhesive plasters across my back and side; that is, the left side where the injury was. He said it was swollen a little. Later in the morning Dr. Corney, who was a friend of mine, came in and examined my back. I have never been out of bed to walk around since I sustained the injury, and have never walked a step since I went to bed in the hospital that night. For a few days I was able to turn myself in bed. Now I suffer excruciating pains along the waist line and in my back, side, and spine, clear up to my neck. The pain goes clear into my head, and my left side bothers me some. From the point where I was struck in the back down I am perfectly helpless. I have no sense of feeling whatever, and cannot use myself at all. I have no feeling in my lower extremities down to my toes. I cannot control my urine and bowels, and cannot tell when they move. The day after the injury my back pained me severely, and I suffered much with my side. The second day I could not have the pillow under my head. About the third day my limbs were numb and would go to sleep, and were heavy for me to lift. About the 25th of July I could not move my limbs, and had no sense of feeling so far as pinching myself was concerned. That was the first day I could not move myself. On the 2d day of August I was moved from the Physicians' & Surgeons' Hospital to St, Vincent's Hospital. Up to about two weeks after I was carried to St. Vincent's, I could still work my toes, and then the paralysis was complete. The paralysis first appeared in my left limb. I could lift the right limb about a day longer than the left. And about the same time I lost control of my urine and bowels. I have suffered pain in my back from the day I was injured continuously until to-day. Sometimes I suffer more than at others. My appetite is poor, and the pain keeps me from sleeping much. I never had hysterics in my life. After I looked at the track and saw the ties broken, I did not go back to my seat and have a spell of hysteria. Up to that time I had not suffered with any pains in my back and left side. I was not quite 16 years of age when I married. I
have had several operations performed on me, being the ones mentioned above. My nurse has done everything advised by the physician to avoid bed sores, but I have three bed sores now, one on the right hip and two on the back. Since I was hurt I have not been anywhere except in the hospitals, the courtroom at Little Rock, and the courtroom here. My limbs have wasted away, and I would judge I weigh near 100 pounds now. If I was lifted up quickly, it would cause me great pain in my back just at the waist line. I was brought here on a cot from the hospital, and suffered much on the way. I can move the muscles in my shoulders and in my head and neck, but I am not able to turn myself at all. [The plaintiff here indicates the point on her body from which point down she says she is absolutely helpless.] At the request of counsel for plaintiff, the nurse sticks pins in the plaintiff's limbs, and counsel for the defendant object, saying that they concede she is paralyzed. Plaintiff testified that she did not feel the sticking of the pins in either of her limbs, which were exposed to the jury at the time the pins were stuck into them."
Miss Sallie Crow testified: "I commenced nursing the plaintiff in the early part of October, 1910. She complained of a pain in the small of her back and thigh, spinal column, and head. She has complained of that ever since. I was with her six or seven weeks the first time, and she suffered intense pain. I had to administer morphine hypodermics to alleviate her pain. At another time I nursed her about five weeks, and again two or three weeks. I have seen her practically every day since she has been in the hospital. I have never seen in her any evidences of nervousness or hysteria. My judgment is that she was suffering real pain. She suffered great pain on the train on her way down here...
