Argonaut Southwest Insurance Co. v. Davis

455 S.W.2d 416, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2403
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 4, 1970
DocketNo. 11711
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 455 S.W.2d 416 (Argonaut Southwest Insurance Co. v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Argonaut Southwest Insurance Co. v. Davis, 455 S.W.2d 416, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2403 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

O’QUINN, Justice.

This appeal involves two cases, brought separately and consolidated before trial, [417]*417for recovery of workmen’s compensation benefits growing out of an automobile accident which resulted in the death of one workman and serious injury to another.

The foremost question to be decided is whether the two workmen were in the course of their employment at the time of the accident.

Louis G. Davis, the deceased workman, and his son, James L. Davis, who suffered serious injury, were employed by Best Steel Buildings, Inc., of Houston, in fabricating and erecting a building in Austin for the University of Texas. The men worked through the week prior to the accident, beginning on Monday and until the early part of the afternoon of Sunday, February 26, 1967. At that time they left for Waller and Houston, accompanied by James Davis’ wife, in Louis Davis’ automobile, a Simca four-door sedan. Louis Davis lived in Waller and his son lived in Houston.

The testimony is in conflict as to whether the Davises were directed by the foreman in Austin to go to Houston to pick up supplies needed for the Austin job next morning. It is undisputed that they went to Houston, spent the night there, did not pick up any supplies for the job, and that early next morning as they were returning to work, with Louis Davis driving, the accident occurred near Austin in which Louis Davis and his daughter-in-law were killed and James Davis received extensive injury.

The jury found in response to special issues that both Louis Davis and James Davis were in the course of their employment for Best Steel Buildings at the time of the accident. The trial court entered judgment awarding recovery of $12,363.82 to Bernice I. Davis, widow of Louis G. Davis, and $19,607.77 to James L. Davis, including $7,974.18 for medical expenses. Attorneys’ fees out of these sums were set aside by the court.

Argonaut Southwest Insurance Company, defendant below, has perfected its appeal and assigns twenty points of error. Appellees have responded with nine counterpoints.

We consider first the points of error under which appellant insurer contends that neither Louis Davis nor James Davis was in the scope of employment when the accident occurred.

Louis Davis and James Davis worked with a crew of several other workmen throughout the week prior to the accident in fabricating a metal building for the University of Texas on a site on West Sixth Street in Austin. The week’s work began on Monday, February 20, 1967, and continued until sometime after noon on Sunday, February 26.

The job in Austin was in charge of Bob Drouet, son of August Drouet, one of the owners and an active officer of Best Steel Buildings located on Jones Road near Hempstead Highway on the western outskirts of Houston. There was testimony that the work was stopped early Sunday afternoon due to shortage of screws needed to complete the application of metal sheets constituting sides of the structure, as well as screws to be used later on the roof after the walls were in place. Two witnesses testified that Bob Drouet, as foreman of the job, directed Louis and James Davis to drive to Houston to obtain the needed supplies.

Bob Drouet denied that the shortage of screws caused stoppage of the job, and testified that he stopped the work Sunday afternoon because of high winds, making the handling of insulation sheets difficult. Drouet also testified that the trip to Houston was suggested by Louis Davis, after which Drouet asked Davis to pick up the screws if August Drouet wanted the screws sent to the job in Austin by Davis. Bob Drouet tried to call his father in Houston by telephone before the Davises left, and when he failed to reach his father, Drouet told Louis Davis to call August Drouet on his arrival in Houston.

The statutes pertinent in determining whether the Davises were in the course of [418]*418employment are Section 1 of Article 8309, V.A.T.S., and Section lb, added by the legislature in 1957.

The material part of Section 1 provides that the term “injury sustained in the course of employment” includes “all other injuries of every kind and character having to do with and originating in the work, business, trade or profession of the employer received by an employee while engaged in or about the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer whether upon the employer’s premises or elsewhere.”

The Supreme Court held in Texas General Indemnity Co. v. Bottom, 365 S.W.2d 350 (Tex.1963) that the legislature intended by the addition of Section lb in 1957 “ * * * to circumscribe the probative effect that might be given to the means of transportation or the purpose of the journey rather than to enlarge the definition found in Section 1.” (365 S.W.2d 353, col. 2.)

Section lb provides:

“Unless transportation is furnished as a part of the contract of employment or is paid for by the employer, or unless the means of such transportation are under the control of the employer, or unless the employee is directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another place, such transportation shall not be the basis for a claim that an injury occurring during the course of such transportation is sustained in the course of employment. Travel by an employee in the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer shall not be the basis for a claim that an injury occurring during the course of such travel is sustained in the course of employment, if said travel is also in furtherance of personal or private affairs of the employee, unless the trip to the place of occurrence of said injury would have been made even had there been no personal or private affairs of the employee to be furthered by said trip, and unless said trip would not have been made had there been no affairs or business of the employer to be furthered by said trip.”

After enactment of Section lb injuries during travel were held to be in the course of employment only if the employer furnishes the transportation as part of the employment contract, pays for it, or has it under control, or if “the employee is directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another place.” Janak v. Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n., 381 S.W.2d 176 (Tex.1964). The Supreme Court, in following this analysis of the statute, in 1965, held that a carpenter foreman transporting power tools from his home to a new work site, pursuant to his employer’s instructions in order to have the tools unloaded and ready for use by carpenters at the start of work, was not in the course of employment because the foreman had not been “directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another place.” Agricultural Insurance Co. v. Dryden, 398 S.W.2d 745 (Tex.1965).

In a concurring opinion in Dryden, one justice held the view that as a basis for his claim the foreman was required to prove that (1) his trip to the work site would have been made even had there been no personal or private affairs of his own to be furthered and (2) the trip would not have been made had there been no affairs of business of the employer to be furthered.

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Related

Davis v. Argonaut Southwest Insurance Co.
464 S.W.2d 102 (Texas Supreme Court, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
455 S.W.2d 416, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/argonaut-southwest-insurance-co-v-davis-texapp-1970.