Case Name: BEAUMONT GASLIGHT CO. v. RUTHERFORD
Court: Texas Courts of Civil Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1920-06-15
Citations: 223 S.W. 245
Docket Number: No. 556
Parties: BEAUMONT GASLIGHT CO. v. RUTHERFORD.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 223
Pages: 245–245

Head Matter:
BEAUMONT GASLIGHT CO. v. RUTHERFORD.
(No. 556.)
(Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Beaumont.
June 15, 1920.)
Evidence (&wkey;>568(7) — Estimate of damages without facts not sufficient to sustain judgment.
An estimate by a witness as to the amount plaintiff’s garden was damaged by a trench for a gas main, without a statement of the facts on which the estimate was based, is insufficient to sustain a judgment for plaintiff.
Appeal from Jefferson County Court; D. P. Wheat, Judge.
Action by Mrs. E. C. Rutherford against the Beaumont Gaslight Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.
Re? versed and remanded for new trial.
O’Brien & Chilton, of Beaumont, for appellant.
C. W. Howth, of Beaumont, for appellee.

Opinion:
WALKER, J.
This was a suit By appellee for damages occasioned by the act of appellant in attempting to lay a gas main across her yard. Her daughter testified as to the character of vegetables growing in the garden, but did not say how large the garden was, how much of it was in cultivation, how much was planted in different hinds of vegetables, nor did she attempt to detail the extent of the injury done the vegetables. She said:
"I estimate the damage done to the garden at $300. Potatoes this year were selling for $2.50 per bushel. We have been raising a garden there for a number of years, and for the last two or three years we have sold vegetables out of that garden for sums amounting to $200 a year."
According to the testimony offered by appellant, the damage done to the vegetables was limited to two strawberry plants, and such damage as may have been occasioned by a little dirt rolling against the vegetables growing adjacent to the trench. The trench was about 40 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 18 inches wide. The testimony offered by ap-pellee was not sufficient to sustain the judgment for $100 and under the rule announced in Railway Company v. Joachimi, 58 Tex. 455, Railway Co. v. Pape, 73 Tex. 503, 11 S. W. 526, Railway Co. v. McGowan, 73 Tex. 355, 11 S. W. 336, Suderman-Dolson v. Rodgers, 47 Tex. Civ. App. 67, 104 S. W. 193, Railway Co. v. Wright, 195 S. W. 605, and Portland Cement Co. v. Kezer, 174 S. W. 664, was subject to the objection that it was a mere estimate by the witness, without a statement of facts upon which such estimate was based.
The cause is reversed and remanded for a new trial.
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