Court Opinion

ID: 9766897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:02:08.800218+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:27.011400
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. The majority is reversing on two points: one, whether the trial court should have instructed the jury according to AMI 1801 on the duty of a railroad to sound a bell or a whistle in advance of public crossings and, two, whether the trial court should have submitted the issue of punitive damages to the jury. I respectfully disagree with the majority on those issues, though I am in agreement on the remaining points. The basis for punitive damages, while marginal, was, I believe, sufficient. There was proof that the railroad breached its duty to keep its right-of-way cleared of vegetation so that vision would be unimpaired, and that the problem had been called to the attention of the appropriate railroad personnel. The condition of vegetation along the Van Burén to Paris route was described as “dangerous” by a former railroad employee and there was evidence that this condition was reported to the appropriate officials. The railroad admits it was guilty of gross negligence in this respect. When that proof is given its strongest probative force on review [Dawson v. Fulton, 294 Ark. 624, 745 S.W.2d 617 (1988)] then it follows that the jury could properly find as a fact that the railroad was guilty of a conscious disregard for the safety of the traveling public. National By-Products, Inc. v. Searcy Housemoving Co., Inc., 292 Ark. 491, 731 S.W.2d 194 (1987); Ellis v. Ferguson, 238 Ark. 776, 385 S.W.2d 154 (1964). Turning to the question of the bell, I am convinced that was not a material issue in the trial and I believe it is a mistake to reverse on that basis. Admittedly, the engineer, Larry Paul Cole, testified at one point that he “turned on the bell” about 1400 or 1500 feet before the highway crossing and left it on until he “got by” the crossing. I do not concede, as the majority opinion asserts, that such testimony must be treated as uncontradicted. The jury was not required to believe that testimony and by so holding, the majority disregards much of the evidence from which the jury could fairly infer that no bell was rung. I think the case can be distinguished from Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. Biddle, 293 Ark. 148A, 737 S.W.2d 625 (1987), on that basis. For almost a century this court has recognized the rule that where a witness to a particular fact may have an interest or a bias with respect to the litigation, his or her testimony, even if uncontradicted, is not binding on the jury. In Skillern v. Baker, 82 Ark. 86, 100 S.W. 764 (1907), we said: It may be said to be the general rule that where an unimpeached witness testifies distinctly and positively to a fact and is not contradicted, and there is no circumstance shown from which an inference against the fact testified to by the witness can be drawn, the fact may be taken as established, and a verdict directed based as on such evidence. But this rule is subject to many exceptions, and where the witness is interested in the result of the suit, or facts are shown that might bias his testimony or from which an inference may be drawn unfavorable to his testimony or against the fact testified to by him, then the case should go to the jury. (My emphasis. Citations omitted). Over the years the rule has been followed repeatedly: Gilbert v. Diversified Graphics, 286 Ark. 261, 691 S.W.2d 162 (1985); Bittle v. Smith, 254 Ark. 123, 591 S.W.2d 815 (1973); Zero Wholesale Gas Co., Inc. v. Stroud, 264 Ark. 27, 571 S.W.2d 741 (1978); Bullock v. Miner, 225 Ark. 897, 286 S.W.2d 328 (1956). The rule is most frequently applied to parties, but where the witness is shown to have a bias, or circumstances are present which permit an inference against the fact asserted, then the issue should be decided by the jury. Skillern v. Baker, supra. In suits against the railroad where the actions of the engineer are at issue it is obvious that he or she is a partisan witness and plainly interested in the result. In a very real sense it is the actions or inactions of the engineer that are on trial. Certainly that is true in this case. Furthermore, when the testimony in its entirety is examined, it is clear the trial court did not err in submitting the issue to the jury pursuant to AMI 1801, as the jury could have inferred that neither a bell nor a whistle was sounded for the required distance. Mr. Cole was called by the plaintiff (appellee) and was the first witness. He testified in some detail about his actions as he approached the crossing where the collision occurred. At no time during his examination in chief or cross-examination did he ever mention ringing a bell. Noting that the witnesses appear to use whistle and horn interchangeably, I quote from some of the abstracted portions of his testimony, with significant remarks italicized: I have seen rule books like the one you are showing me. I believe it says that an engineer approaching a public crossing will give a 20 second horn signal. I don’t really know if they have changed the rule. I do know we are required to sound the horn for 20 seconds or a quarter of a mile. That is what I do. That is a rule I follow. It is my understanding that the rules require the horn to be sounded for 20 seconds or a quarter of a mile, whichever is longer. The whistle board would indicate where the quarter of a mile starts. On the day the accident happened I blew the whistle for a quarter of a mile. A quarter of a mile is 1,320 feet. I blew the whistle for that distance or maybe even a little longer, but at least a quarter of a mile. The engine weighs about 262,000 pounds. Before we left Van Burén we made a brake test. I checked the horn, the sanders and the headlights on both ends of the unit to make sure that everything was working. I checked the horns with the long end forward. The horn was a loud horn. All of the horns are loud. On this particular engine the horn was so loud it would make your head hurt. All of the locomotives have the horn situated just above the cab there. The horns are so loud that, when you get off work, you will normally have a slight ringing in your ears. There is no faster way to stop a train than by putting it into emergency. When you put the train into emergency you open up a large valve which dumps the air from the train line. The reservoirs that are placed on each car push the brake shoes against the wheels as tight as they will go. Then you just sit and ride it out. That’s all you can do except blow the horn. As I approached the Highway 41 crossing we were going about 30 miles per hour. After we had gone over the highway 22 crossing I started around the curve and I began sounding the whistle. I was keeping an eye out ahead and to the left to see if anything was obscuring my movement, anything on the track or anything that was about to approach the track. The whistle signal I gave as I approached the crossing was two long blasts, a short and then a prolonged blast. When I saw the vehicle approaching the crossing I began making rapid sijprt blasts trying to get his attention. That was in the last two or three second interval right at the end. I make the kind of signal that the rule book calls for as I approached the crossing. I blew the whistle all the way from a point 1,500 back until I got to the crossing. When I saw Mr. Mackey’s truck I realized he was not going to stop. I really couldn’t tell whether I was able to slow the train any after I put it into emergency before the collision occurred. I couldn’t say I felt that much difference. We went about 800 feet past the crossing before we were finally able to stop. I believe it was a good stop for this train. Other than looking down the tracks, blowing the whistle, seeing Mr. Mackey and putting it into emergency, there was nothing else I could have done under the circumstances. I went out there and measured the distance back to where I began blowing the horn. We measured it with a wheel. The Highway 22 crossing is about 12 mile up the road. There is a whistle board in there some place when you are coming back that tells you to start blowing for the Branch (Highway 22) crossing. I did not exactly use that board to start blowing for this crossing. I just know that it is about halfway between those two crossings. I did not measure to the board, I measured to the point where I was when I started blowing the whistle. When I would have seen that board it would have been down in front of me. I am not sure how far but I was down there so much I knew where the crossing was. When you started around the curve you started blowing the whistle. Not until Mr. Cole had been examined in chief, cross-examined, re-examined and re-cross-examined, did he ever claim to have rung the bell, and even then the intimation is that he was referring to his usual “practice.” Quoting from the record: [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Q: Mr. Cole, do you turn on your bell before you got to the Highway 22 Crossing? A. Yes, sir. Q: How long did you leave it on after you turned it on at that point? A: Okay, as a matter of practice, before reaching, when I know there’s a number of crossings coming up, I turn the bell on and leave it on until I go over the last crossing, and I turned that on before reaching the Highway 22 Crossing, which would be about fourteen, fifteen hundred feet, something in that neighborhood, and I left it on until I got by the 41 Highway Crossing.1  Two disinterested witnesses to the accident testified. Both were standing near the crossing and neither of them mentioned a bell. Gerald Don Clayton was called by the plaintiff, Gary White by the defendant. Mr. Clayton was standing on the loading platform of a feed store immediately adjacent to the crossing. He saw the truck coming toward the crossing and “then I heard the train blow its whistle.” He continued: I saw the truck first. I heard the horn of the train before I saw it. I heard the train and looked up and saw it. It was coming right past the station where you could see it, just into view. There is a large tree there. It would be about 200 feet back to where the train was. The maximum the train could have been when Ifirst heard the horn was 250 to 300 feet. When I saw the vehicle coming down the road I still had not heard the sound of the horn at that time. As soon as I heard the sound of the train I looked for it. You could tell that it was close when you heard the sound. I could have heard the horn blowing if the horn had been blowing prior to that time. There was nothing that prevented me from hearing a train horn prior to the time I heard it. I did not have any trouble hearing the train. It was good and loud when I heard it. I am not testifying that the train did not blow its whistle prior to the time I heard it, I just wasn’t paying any attention. It could have been blowing prior to the time I first heard it, but I didn’t hear it. I said that the train did not start blowing its horn until it got to the diesel pump. Mr. Thompson asked me how much further down the track he would have blown it. It could not have been further down than the station where we have the diesel pumps. It could not have been further than that. If he started blowing it at the diesel pumps I would have heard it, but he didn’t blow it there. He blew it right up by that tree. The diesel pumps are further back toward the west than the big tree. If the horn had been blowing at the diesel pumps I would have heard it for sure and I did not. Even the witness called by the railroad, Mr. White, made no mention of a bell. This witness, like Mr. Clayton, was standing outside near the diesel pumps, about 150 feet from the crossing. I did not witness the collision. I saw the train and I saw Mr. Mackey’s truck. I heard the train whistle blow twice, two short toots and a long one. It was a thousand feet or so down the track when I first heard the whistle. It was 15 or 20 seconds or so from the time Ifirst heard the whistle until the collision occurred. I heard two short toots and a long. I heard it once. I don’t remember whether there were any pauses from the time when I first heard the whistle until the train occupied the crossing. The whistle was good and loud. I did not have any trouble hearing it. Thus the issue clearly was not the ringing of a bell, but whether the engineer complied with the law by blowing a whistle for one quarter of a mile before reaching the crossing. I submit the trial court was entirely correct to instruct the jury as it did and for the reasons stated I would affirm.   Record, p. 488.