73 Fla. 269 | Fla. | 1917
Sherman Holliday brought an action at law against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation, for the recovery of damages for
It is insisted that what purports to be a final judgment, copied in the transcriptof the record is not such a final judgment as will support a writ of error. We find that the transcript shows the following proceedings:
“On the 6th day of January, 1916, at .a term of said court, came the respective parties by their attorneys and submitted said cause, on the issues joined between them, to a jury, who were duly sworn according to law, and who, having heard the evidence, the charge of the court and argument of counsel, returned the following verdict :
“ ‘Sherman Holliday vs. A. C. L. R. R. Co.
‘We the jury find for the plaintiff and assess his damages in the sum of ($3000.bo) So say we all.
“ ‘ J. B. Hundley, Foreman.’
“On the-—day of--, 1916, the following judgment upon the verdict of the jury was entered by the court:
“The record of the judgment as the same appears in ‘minutes 26 Circuit Court’ on page 380, is in the words and figures following-:
“ ‘Thereupon itisordered andadjudged that thePlaintiff Sherman Holliday do have and recover of and from
Undoubtedly, if this is not such a final judgment as will support a writ of error, we would have to dismiss such writ, whether a motion be made for that purpose or not, as we have frequently held. See Goldring v. Reid, 60 Fla. 78, 53 South. Rep. 503. But, in order to warrant this court in acting ex mero motu- in the matter, such insufficiency or invalidity must appear on the face of the judgment itself or be affirmatively shown by the transcript. If evidence aliunde is nessary, the opposing party should file a motion to dismiss and introduce such evidence.- No such motion has been made in this case and no evidence aliunde introduced. The case has been briefed on the merits by each party litigant and the'plaintiff has attempted to raise such point in his brief, relying upon the face of the transcript. He contends that such judgment is insufficient because the same is not signed either by the judg-e or clerk, and it does not appear when the same was entered. There is no merit in this contention. We have no statute or rule of court requiring judgments rendered in open court in term time to be signed either by the judge or clerk. Section 1831 of the General Statutes of 1906 provides that the Clerk of the Circuit Court “shall keep Minute Books, in which he shall keep regular and-fair minutes of all the proceedings of the Circuit Court, and of the judge, in term or vacation, which shall be signed by the judge before the adjournment of the term.” See McClerkin v. State, 20 Fla. 879; Simmons v. Hanne, 50 Fla. 267, text 270, 39 South. Rep. 77, 7 Ann. Cas. 267; Pittsburg Steel Co., v. Streety, 60 Fla. 183, 53 South. Rep. 505. The better practice, as a general rule, would be for
The transcript shows that the case came on for trial on the 3rd day of January, 1916, before a jury, that a verdict was returned therein on the 6th day of such month, that the bill of éxceptions therein was settled and signed on the 29th day of April, 1916, that a final judgment in sufficient form was rendered and entered in the minutes of the court and that a writ of.error to such judgment was sued out on the 10th day of April, 1916. We must hold that this contention of the plaintiff has not been sustained. We think it ’is advisable to call attention to the fact as is stated in 1 Thornton’s Attorneys at Law,
We now direct our attention to the assignments of error. The 59th assignment, which is based upon the overruling of the demurrer to the declaration, though the last assigment argued, should be considered first, whether from a chronological, logical or legal order, as we have repeatedly held “where there is no sufficient declaration in a case, and a demurrer should have been sustained thereto, the other questions in the record are not open for the consideration of the appellate court.” City of Orlando v. Heard, 29 Fla. 581, 11 South. Rep. 182; South Florida Tel. Co. v. Maloney, 34 Fla. 338, 16 South. Rep. 280; Florida Cent. & P. R. Co. v. Ashmore, 43 Fla. 272, 32 South. Rep. 832; Royal Phosphate Co. v. Van Ness, 33 Fla. 133, 43 South. Rep. 916; Kirton v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 57 Fla. 79, 49 South. Rep 1024. If we should reach the conclusion that this error is well assigned, we would be precluded from going any further.
The first count of the declaration is as follows:
“Sherman Holliday, of Polk County, Florida, the plaintiff, by his attorneys, Dickenson & Dickenson, sues Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation under the laws of the State of Virginia, the defendant, which has been summoned to answer the plaintiff in a civil action, for that, Whereas, to-wit, on or about the 6th day of December, A. D. 1914, the defendant was a corporation under the laws of the State of Virginia, the defendant, which has been summoned to answer the plaintiff in a civil action, for that, Whereas, to-wit, on or about the 6th day of December, A. D. 1914, the defendant was
“Wherefore, the plaintiff brings this suit and claims
The second count differs from the first in that il alleges that the defendant “at about 6 o’clock in the night so carelessly and negligently run and operate a certain train composed of an engine and certain freight cars thereto attached through the darkness, with a certain heavy bar, or rod, or other article, the further description of which is to the plaintiff unknown, projecting out from the side of said train with utter disregard of the safety of the plaintiff who was then and there, with all due care and caution, and without fault on his part, proceeding along the side of said track on which said train was being drawn and operated, and at a safe and convenient distance from said train engaged in the performance of his duty in the care of said lamps aforesaid, whereby the plaintiff was struck with great force and violence by the said bar, rod or article projecting- from said train as aforesaid.”
The demurrer was interposed to the declaration as an entiretjr and to each count thereof and a number of “substantial matters of law intended to be argued” were stated. We have examined all the grounds of the denuirreruvhich the plaintiff has urged before us, restricting- our investigation to those grounds that are argued and treating the other grounds as having been abandoned, in line with our holding in Moore v. Lanier, 52 Fla. 353, 42 South. Rep. 462; Jacksonville Electric Co. v. Schmetzer, 53 Fla. 370, 43 South. Rep. 85; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Crosby, 53 Fla. 400, 43 South. Rep. 318. The grounds so argued are that the declaration “showed that the plaintiff knew of the danger incident to-his employment and failed to show that he exercised care therein, 01-want of care on the part of the defendant in the operation
We do not think that this assignment calls for any extended discussion. We have repeatedly held “In actions for negligent injuries it may be necessary to allege only the relations between the parties out of which the duty to avoid negligence arises, and the act or omission that proximately caused the injury, coupled with a statement that such act or omission was negligently done or omitted.” Ingram-Dekle Lumber Co. v. Geiger, 71 Fla. 390, 71 South. Rep. 552, wherein prior decisions of this court are cited. It is true, as we also held therein, “A declaration should contain sufficient allegations of all the facts that are necessary to state a cause of action. As a general rule, only ultimate facts need be alleged.” We think that the declaration sufficiently measures up to these requirements. See also the discussion in Morris v. Florida Cent. & P. R. Co., 43 Fla. 10, 29 South. Rep. 541; Tampa & Jacksonville R. Co. v. Crawford, 67 Fla. 77, 64 South. Rep. 437; Logan Coal & Supply Co. v. Hasty,
After the overruling of the demurrer, the defendant filed the following pleas :
“1st. That it is not guilty.
“And for a second plea to each count of said declaration, defendant says that plaintiff at the time in said declaration set out, when, the alleged injury was sustained, the plaintiff was an employe of the defendant engaged in a hazardous employment, and that the plaintiff knew of the hazards attendant upon his said employment, and knew of the dangers to be apprehended in the course of his employment from passing trains; and defendant further says that the said plaintiff at the time aforesaid, failed to exercise ordinary and reasonable care to avoid injury to himself, resulting from the dangers aforesaid, and failed to keep a proper lookout to' avoid being, struck by a passing train; and defendant further says that by such failure to observe a duty imposed upon him, the said plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence directly contributing to his injury, which the defendant is ready to verify.
“And for a third plea to each count of said declaration, defendant says that at the time of the injury to the
The pláintiff joined issue upon all these pleas and the case was submitted to a jury with the result as above stated.
As we have previously said, numerous errors are assigned, 59 in all, but quite a number of them must be treated as abandoned for the reason that they are not argued. We have examined all of the assignments which have been urged before us, but, in view of the conclusion which we have reached, it becomes unnecessary to discuss them in detail. Of such assignments, the 2nd to the 7th inclusive, the nth and the 12th to the 16th inclusive, are all argued together and are based upon the sustaining of certain objections interposed by the plaintiff to questions propounded by the defendant to the plaintiff on his cross-examination. All of these questions, as is stated by the defendant in its brief, were designed to elicit information as to whether or not the plaintiff after his injury made a report thereof to the defendant, directly or indirectly for a period of more than two weeks. We do not see the ma
The 24th to the 28th assignments inclusive and the 32nd to the 35th assignments inclusive are all argued together and are based upon the sustaining of the plaintiff’s objections to certain questions propounded to G.
These are the only assignments argued which are based upon the admission or exclusion of evidence. Assignments 48, 49, 50 and 52 are based upon instructions given at the request of the plaintiff, assignment 57 is based upon a paragraph of the charge given by the trial court of its own motion, and assignments 53 to 56 inclusive are based upon the refusal of instructions requested by the defendant. We have examined all these assignments, but shall not discuss them. It may be that technical error was committed either in the giving or refusal of some of these requested instructions. Even so, if such errors could not reasonably have' been prejudicial to the defendant, they would not be sufficient to work a reversal of the judgment. See Southern Express Co. v. Williamson, 66 Fla. 286, 63 South. Rep. 433, L. R. A. 1916 C, 1208.
We feel that it is our duty to call attention to the fact that this case was tried in part upon an erroneous or immaterial • issue. Both of the parties litigant ignored
We recently have had occasion to consider and construe Chapter 6521 and copied it in full in Gulf, Florida & Alabama Ry. Co. v. King, decided here at the present term and to which opinion we now refer, without repeating what we said there. We think that it necessarily follows from our reasoning and holding in this cited case that such Chapter 6521 is alike applicable and controlling in the instant case. We construed the term “engaged in * * railroading” as used in this Chapter and reached the conclusion that it was sufficiently comprehensive to apply to the employer’s liability to its employees in “the
It could not successfully be contended that the plaintiff, who was employed to care for the artificial lights, as we have just said, and the conductor and engineer, whose duty it was to operate, defendant’s train of cars, were “jointly engaged in performing the act causing the injury.” This being true, even if the plaintiff and such conductor and engineer could be said to be fellow servants, which would not seem to be the case, such fact would not preclude the plaintiff from recovering damages for personal injuries inflicted on him through the negligence of the defendant, and even if the proofs adduced established the fact that the plaintiff’s own negligence contributed in part to such injury. See Section 3 of Chapter £>521. The defendant had the benefit of his sec
We have now disposed of all the errors assigned and argued, including the 58th, though we have not mentioned it by number, which is based upon the overruling of the motion for a new trial, with the exception of the ground of such motion that the damages awarded are excessive. The testimony as to the nature and extent of the injuries inflicted is also conflicting, the medical experts introduced by the respective parties widely differing. Here again it was the province of the jury to settle these conflicts. See Pensacola Electric Co. v. Bissett, 59 Fla. 360, 52 South. Rep. 367. We are not prepared †0 declare that the amount of $3,000.00 is so excessive as to shock our judicial conscience.
No reversible errors having been made to appear to us, the judgment must'be'affirmed.
Browne, C. ]., and Taylor, Whitfield and Ellis, JJ., concur.