Court Opinion

ID: 9831917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 21:28:49.768287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:39.440237
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Because we overruled certain of appellant’s assignments of error without assigning our reason as applied to each assignment, it *785is insisted (hat wo should do so, that it may have the benefit thereof in presenting them to the Supreme Court upon writ of error.
Wo thought when the opinion was written, and think now, that this is a useless waste of time, because, as we understand the rules and holdings of the Supreme Court, it would, if writ of error was granted, pass upon all questions, unless it be one requiring a finding of fact by this court. Wilson v. Johnson, 91 Tex. 272, 60 S. W. 242.
However, we have concluded that under the statute we are required to specifically pass upon each assignment of error, so we give the following reasons for overruling the appellant’s other 31 assignments:
The third complains of the refusal of the court to suppress the depositions of a witness for plaintiff because he failed to answer 24 cross-interrogatories propounded. This assignment is overruled because: (a) The record fails to show that the motion to suppress was seasonably made; (b) the answers given show that he answered fully and freely all questions about which he had first knowledge; (c) it was a matter of discretion with the trial court, and we see no abuse of discretion.
The fourth, a witness, was permitted to testify over objections that so many cattle were paid for out of each shipment by the insurance company and the amount paid. Appellant specially pleaded that it. should not be held liable for more than appellee paid the shippers. This was direct evidence of the amount paid, and was limited to .that purpose by the court, (b) The assignment of the claims of the shippers, what was paid and what paid for, was a necessary part of their cause of action.
Fifth. The expense bills were offered in evidence. They were issued by the initial carrier, appellant, and contained notations of the number of cattle shipped. The number checked out at destination, the number and kind dead and missing, etc. (a) The bill of exceptions does not show that the contents of these papers were ever known to the jury; (b) and, if they were, there is no showing that they were in any way influenced thereby; (c) the facts were proven by other evidence.
The sixth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth complain that it was error to exclude evidence, letters, and testimony offered concerning the weak and impoverished condition of the cattle before shipment, as to whether they were physically fit for shipment, etc.
The answer to all of these is that there was no evidence offered by appellant to show that any losses for which recovery was had were occasioned by or due solely to the impoverished or weak condition of the cattle, but, on the other hand, the court’s charge clearly submitted as a basis of recovery the damages to the cattle sustained by rough handling and delays, etc., and that no recovery could be had for or on account of inherent weakness. The rule applicable is that—
“A recovery cannot be had for injuries which were the proximate result of weakness at the time they were tendered for carriage, yet the carrier, having received them, were in duty bound to exercise ordinary care, and to transport them with reasonable dispatch, and if guilty of negligence or unreasonable delay which proximately resulted in injury, it is liable, though the results'were more disastrous than if the cattle had been in good condition.” T. & P. Ry. Co. v. Dawson, 34 Tex. Civ. App. 240, 78 S. W. 235; K. C. & M. Ry. Co. v. Weatherby, 203 S. W. 793.
By the nineteenth the point is made that it was error to permit a witness to testify that the shipment of cattle with which he traveled were in proper condition for shipment, upon the ground that he was not qualified. The evidence is sufficient to show qualification to give an opinion about the cattle which he accompanied.
Another observation upon the two propositions 'might not be amiss in disclosing the views of the court upon the two questions, i. e., as to the admission of testimony that some of the cattle were in good condition for shipment and the exclusion of other opinion evidence offered that they were too weak for shipment. The record clearly discloses that many of the cattle were in good condition, and there is abundant evidence that many of them were very poor and weak. For instance, the shippers in effect admitted that the reason for taking out the insurance was upon this account, but the fact that the opinion of certain witnesses as to poverty and weakness were excluded could not be held reversible error in the face of the whole record, for it, to us, clearly appears that the question was fully developed upon the facts, and that the court gave a fair charge, if not a more favorable charge, in favor of defendant upon the question than was warranted.
The following interrogatories were propounded to witness Ellis:
No. 22: “If the cattle that died and were lost in transit either while they were being transported or soon thereafter had reached their destination in good condition and without any unusual delays or rough treatment in transit, what would they have been worth at their destination at the time these cattle moved? What would the crippled and injured eatüe in the several shipments have been worth at destination at that time in an uninjured condition?”
Answer: “The cattle that got through alive were badly broken up and injured, and I suppose depreciated in value more than they would have been had there been no unusual delays or rough treatment of the cattle while they were in transit.”
Interrogatory 23: “State, if you know, wheth*786er the cattle in these several shipments which got through alive, and which did -not therefore die from their injuries, were injured and depreciated in value more than they would have been if there had been no unusual delays or rough treatment of such cattle while in transit. What is your best judgment as to this? That is, in your judgment, would such cattle depreciate in value by reason of any unusual delays or rough treatment while in transit more than they would have been if they had been handled in the usual and customary way and gone through in their usual and customary time? If you answer this question in the affirmative, then please state the extent of such depreciation, and state the facts on which your judgment with, reference thereto is based.”
To the twenty-third interrogatory he answers: “The cattle depreciated in value much more than they would if they had been^ handled in the usual and customary manner and gone through in the usual and customary time, hut I do not know the extent of the depreciation in money value.”
Interrogatory 24: “How long did it take these cattle to recover from the effects of the shipment?”
To the twenty-fourth interrogatory he answers: “In my opinion it would take those cattle from 50 to GO days to recover from the effects of the shipment.”
Defendant filed its motion to excludé and suppress these interrogatories upon the ground that the answer to the twenty-second is a voluntary statement not called for by the question, and the witness not qualified. As to the twenty-third, in addition to the above grounds that the answer is not a proper criterion by which to measure or make proof of damages in this case, and practically the same reasons are assigned in the motion to exclude the answer .to the twenty-fourth. The answers seem to be fairly responsive to the questions.
The witness was placed on the stand and examined and cross-examined, and it appears from his testimony tliat he had had many years’ experience in shipping cattle. But as to whether the witness was in fact qualified to testify was a matter for the trial court in its discretion, and will not be reviewed, except upon showing of ^ross abuse of this discretion. Drug Co. v. Madden Graham Co., 45 Tex. Civ. App. 74, 99 S. W. 723.
Ninth assignment complains of the refusal of the court to strike out the following from the answer to the twenty-third interrogatory to witness McAuley:
“To the twenty-third direct interrogatory: In my answer to the eighteenth direct interrogatory I say I did not know of any cattle that had been injured that did not die, and by this I referred to crippled animals that got down in the car and wore trampled on, but did not refer to the general damages to the entire shipment because of the handling they received between San Antonio and destination. (This handling, in my opinion, depreciated the entire shipment I should say, from $1.50 to $3 per head. I say this because I remained with the cattle after they reached their destination, and saw them get fat and resold, and know from the way they recuperated there they were damaged to the extent I have stated. I make this statement knowing that cattle shipped the distance from Marathon to Blackland would depreciate to some extent in condition with ordinary and usual handling, but the amounts of depreciation I have stated are in excess of what the depreciation would be if they had been handled in any ordinary and usual manner, without delays or rough treatment.)^
“Whereupon defendant promptly objected to the reading in evidence of all that part of the answer inclosed in parentheses above, for the reason that it is but an opinion of the witness, not responsive to the question, and the testimony is not the proper method or criterion by which to prove or measure the damages in this case. It is upon a mixed question of law and fact, and is an invasion of the province of the jury for the witness to be permitted to assess the damage in a lump sum, or by per cent., or by any other method, and it is also shown by the witness that he is not qualified as an export on the subject, and knows nothing of the market value of the animals.
“No other testimony than his own, as it .appears in the statement of facts, was offered on his qualification.”
It seems clear that there was no question of law involved in this answer, but was purely a question of fact, concerning which the witness shows himself to be familiar by the fact that he accompanied the cattle, and remained with them, and the facts enumerated, as well as the opinion expressed, tended to establish true measure of damages, and this is sufficient. M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Gauble, 174 S. W. 880; G., C. & L. F. Ry. Co. v. Jackson & Edwards, 99 Tex. 343, 89 S. W. 968.
The tenth assignment complains of the failure of the court to strike out a similar answer to an interrogatory upon approximately the same grounds as indicated next above, and is overruled for the same reason.
Assignments 20 and 21 complain of the refusal of the court to exclude the opinions of two witnesses to the effect that—
“Cattle of the class in question, going from this section of the country at that time of the year to pasture in Oklahoma, should not, in their opinion, lose over a certain per cent., assuming that the cattle are handled in'the ordinary and usual way, where there is no rough handling or unusual delays, or, in other words, given good handling.”
This was purely a question of fact, about which the witnesses were shown to be qualified to express an opinion, and in no way involves a question of law. True Bros. v. St. L. & B. M. Ry. Co., 143 S. W. 298.
The twenty-second charges error in permitting witness, over objection, to express his opinion as to the increase in value of *787the cattle between the point of shipment and destination. This was simply an opinion that the value was greater at destination than at point of shipment, and witness had shown himself qualified to express such an opinion, and the record does not disclose that appellant made any effort to discredit his qualification to do so, so it was not error to admit the testimony. T. & P. Ry. Co. v. De Long et al., 176 S. W. 874.
The twenty-third and twenty-fourth, -twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh assert that for various reasons the court should have instructed a verdict for defendant; for instance, it is asserted that there is: (a) No comp'etent evidence upon which to base a finding of damages or the amount; (b) that the uncontroverted evidence establishes as a matter of law that all the injury resulted from poverty, weakness, and inherent vices of the cattle, etc. To these propositions we cannot give our assent.
The twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-second, and thirty-third complain of the charge of the court. In this we find no error. To answer all the propositions under these assignments would take too ^uch time and space, and we fail to see how doing so would assist either appellant in applying for, or the Supreme Court in passing upon, an application for writ of error.
The judgment is not excessive.