Court Opinion

ID: 9827766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:50:06.825852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:36.191946
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
 While there was an allegation of delay on the part of the carrier, the question of delay was not submitted to the jury, and therefore is of no effect in the consideration. The judgment in this case must be sustained, if at all, on the presumption of negligence and rough handling on the way to New Orleans. When that presumption arose, then it devolved on the carrier to show by testimony that there was no rough handling, but that the cattle were handled in a careful manner. That is exactly what was done by the carrier, and, in addition, there was affirmative evidence to the effect that the cattle not only did not die from rough handling, but died from the effects of arsenical poisoning received through, dipping at the point of shipment. This latter testimony was clear and to the point, and unassailed and uncon-tradicted by appellees. It was calmly set aside and ignored by the jury, as was the testimony in regard to the manner in which the cattle were handled by the carrier. To hold that a railroad company cannot destroy a presumption of negligence by affirmative uncontroverted evidence is to hold that, whenever cattle are delivered to a railroad company in good condition at the shipping point, and are delivered in bad condition at the point of destination, it would amount to a declaration that a railroad company has no defense against the presumption mentioned. That is not the law, however. The evidence as to the handling of the cattle was not the opinion of witnesses, but the positive statement of facts.
It is stated that the case of Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Hellen (Tex. Civ. App.) 47 S.W.(2d) 1112, 1113, is the exact case now before this court with the exact facts. In answer to this, we quote the language of that opinion:
“It was shown that the cattle were delivered to the carrier in good shipping condition and in apparent sound health; that they were seriously delayed in transit by the carrier; that some of them died, and others were injured in transit.
“The carrier gave no satisfactory explanation of the' slow movement, made no showing of the character of handling of the cattle during the long delays at stations en route.”
 In that case there was delay; in this case no issue of delay arose. In that case there was slow motion by the train; nothing of the kind was shown in this case. In that case no satisfactory account of the trip was given; in this case the evidence was positive of careful handling upon the part of the carrier. Within bounds, the jury can ignore the testimony of witnesses, but cannot arbitrarily shut their ears to plain un-controverted evidence given by witnesses. We cannot subscribe to the doctrine that every witness for a corporation is presumed to be a liar and no heed given to his testimony. Every witness should be judged by his reputation for veracity, by his manner of testifying, and by the reasonableness of the story told. Appellees seem to be in doubt as to what the opinion decides, and we state that the judgment is reversed because the verdict disregarded the testimony and has no foundation in the statement of facts.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.