H. & T. C. R'y Co. v. Larkin

Citations

• 64 Tex. 454

Syllabus

<p>1. Depositions — Certificate.— The certificate of the officer taking depositions, and attached thereto, will be sufficient, if, when taken in connection with the caption which precedes the answers taken by the officer, it appears that the statute has been substantially complied with. Citing Carroll v. Welch, 26 Tex., 147.</p> <p>2. Evidence — Expert testimony.— In a suit to recover damages for personal injuries caused by an accident alleged to have been the result of the negligence of defendant, a witness was asked to slate the extent of the accident, its cause, and to describe the thing that caused it. The witness was not an expert in matters relating to machinery, a defect in machinery being the alleged cause of the injury. Held, that while the question was objectionable in so far as it sought to elicit the opinion of the witness as to what caused the accident, yet as he stated also the facts on which he based that opinion, the failure to exclude the answer afforded no ground for reversal, since the jury was in possession of the evidence of machinists and experts, and could not have been misled by the opinion of the witness.</p> <p>3. Evidence — Verdict — New trial. — A mere preponderance of evidence against a verdict will not authorize the supreme court to reverse a judgment entered thereon, when the evidence in favor of it, taken by itself, is sufficient to sustain it.</p> <p>4. Charge of court. — While the giving of undue prominence in a charge to some special feature of the case may sometimes be so calculated to influence a verdict as to afford cause for reversal, the mere repetition in a charge, in a suit for damages for personal injuries, of the abstract principle that the jury might consider the physical and mental suffering the plaintiff had endured, in estimating damages, cannot be regarded as calculated to affect a jury of ordinary intelligence and will afford no ground for reversal.</p> <p>5. Remarks of counsel on argument of cause — Trial by jury —