Court Opinion

ID: 9833360
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:39:18.455033+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:01.981749
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
[6] A ground, among others, set up for reconsideration by this court, is the refusal of the trial court to give the following instruction:
“You are instructed that the plaintiff cannot recover damages that are the direct result of his own wrongful and negligent conduct. In this case, if you find from the testimony that the difficulty between the plaintiff and the brakeman was occasioned by wrongful conduct on the part of the plaintiff (that is to say, if the difficulty was provoked by the plaintiff and the damages sustained by him were the direct consequences and result of such provocation), then the plaintiff cannot recover, and your verdict, in such event, should be for the defendant.”
The point made now, as in original consideration, in respect to the refused instruction, is in line with the case of Railway Co. v. Gerren, 57 Tex. Civ. App. 34, 121 S. W. 905, that, if the plaintiff provoked the difficulty and brought about the rencounter, the company would not be responsible. It is thought, though, as before considered, that the following special charge requested by appellant and given to the jury by the court sufficiently, under the evidence, covered the idea of such refused charge, viz.:
“If from the testimony you believe that, after the plaintiff had gotten to the platform of the coach and had passed the brakeman Knox, he (the plaintiff) turned, without provocation at that time, and addressed to said Knox a vile and insulting epithet and kicked him in the mouth, and that not until he was so kicked did the said Knox strike or offer to strike the plaintiff, and that a difficulty followed in consequence of the plaintiff’s kicking Knox under the circumstances and in consequence of an effort on the part of Knox to prevent the plaintiff from kicking him again or striking him, then the plaintiff cannot recover in this case for the damages, either physical or mental, he sustained in consequence of the said difficulty.”
It is believed that the motion should, in all things, be overruled.