Arrendell v. Wells

149 S.W.2d 307
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 25, 1941
DocketNo. 3812.
StatusPublished

This text of 149 S.W.2d 307 (Arrendell v. Wells) 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
Arrendell v. Wells, 149 S.W.2d 307 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

Frank Wells, the son of appellee, Mrs. Anna Wells, was killed on the 14th day of September, 1938, in a collision on highway No. 35 in Liberty county, between a logging truck owned and operated by appellant Allen Arrendell, driven by his em *308 ployee, C. A. Morrow, and a lumber truck owned and operated by Garrison Lumber Company, driven by its employee, C. W. Whitehead. At the time of the collision Frank Wells was riding in the lumber truck as a passenger. This suit was brought by appellee against appellants for the damages suffered by her in the death of her son. Answering special issues, the jury convicted appellants of certain acts of negligence plead against them, and acquitted Frank Wells of the acts of contributory negligence plead against him. The jury also found that the collision was not the result of an unavoidable accident, and assessed appellee’s damages at $7,-000. Judgment was for appellee against appellants for the damages assessed by the jury, together with the additional sum of $161.75, the agreed amount of the funeral and other expenses, from which appellants have prosecuted their appeal to this court.

As acts of negligence and proximate cause of the collision, the jury found that appellant Morrow, at the time of the collision, -was operating the logging truck: (a) on his left-hand side of the highway “when the highway was not clear and unobstructed for a distance of at least fifty yards ahead”; (b) that the truck was “being driven by him at a rate of speed in excess of 25 miles per hour at the time of the collision”; (c) that he attempted to turn the truck to the left on the intersecting road; (d) that he “failed to drive the truck to the right-hand side of the highway past the center of intersecting road before undertaking to .turn to the left on said road”; (e) that he was guilty of negligence in undertaking-“to turn the truck to his left on the intersecting road, without first ascertaining that there was sufficient space for such movement to be made in safety”; (f) that he “was guilty of negligence in operating the truck at a high, dangerous and reckless rate of speed at the time of the collision”; (g) that he was guilty of negligence in failing to keep a “proper lookout”; and (h) that he was guilty of negligence in failing “to give any visible signal of his intention to turn to the left immediately before undertaking to do so.” The jury further found that Whitehead, the driver of the lumber truck, “did not fail to keep a proper lookout for vehicles approaching”.; that he “was not driving the lumber truck at- an excessive rate of speed under all attending facts and circumstances”; that he “did not fail to keep a proper lookout for other vehicles on ' the highway”; and that he “did not have sufficient time to drive the lumber truck operated by him far enough to the left to have avoided the collision.” The jury further found that “Frank Wells did not fail to keep a proper lookout for other vehicles approaching on the highway”; that “the failure on the part of Frank Wells to warn Whitehead of the position of the truck driven by Morrow on the highway was not negligence on the part of Frank Wells.” Appellants have no assignments of error against these findings of the jury, on the ground that they were without support in the evidence or against ■ the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence.

We overrule appellants’ proposition, as being without support in the evidence, that the court erred in refusing to submit their requested issues: (1) discovered peril as against the driver Whitehead “as the sole proximate cause of the collision”; (2) failure of Whitehead “to keep his truck under proper control, at and immediately prior to the time of the collision,” as “the sole proximate cause of the collision”; (3) the failure of Whitehead “to apply the brakes on his truck and bring the same to a stop before the collision,” as “the sole proximate cause of the collision”; (4) the act of Whitehead in continuing “to drive the lumber truck in the same way and manner after seeing and observing Morrow turn left on the highway,” as “the sole proximate cause of the collision.”

There was no evidence supporting appellants’ requested issues 4 and 5, “making inquiry as to whether or not at and immediately prior to the time of the collision, the defendant Morrow was acting under an emergency, defining such term, and also whether or not he acted as a person of ordinary care and prudence would have acted under the same or similar circumstances, after the emergency arose.”

The court made the following submission of unavoidable accident:

Special Issue No. 21 :•
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the collision of the truck, so driven by the said C. A. Morrow, with the truck in which Frank Wells was riding, on the occasion in question, was not the result' of an unavoidable accident?
“You will answer this question ‘It was not the result of an unavoidable accident,-’ or- ‘It was the result of an unavoidable accident.’ ”

*309 The court’s submission of that issue has support in the following authorities: Sproles et al. v. Rosen et ux., 126 Tex. 51, 84 S.W.2d 1001; Sproles Motor Freight Lines et al. v. Juge, Tex.Civ.App., 123 S.W.2d 919. The definition of unavoidable accident submitted by the charge has support in the following authorities: Woodward et al. v. Murphy, Tex.Civ.App., 29 S.W.2d 828; Wichita Valley Ry. Co. v. Minor, Tex.Civ.App., 100 S.W.2d 1071, and cases therein cited; Sherwin-Williams Co. of Texas v. Delahoussaye, Tex.Civ.App., 124 S.W.2d 870. Appellants’ exceptions to the definition of unavoidable accident on the ground that the evidence raised the issue that the collision could have been proximately caused by the negligent acts of other persons than Morrow, the driver of the logging truck, and the de^ ceased is overruled, as without support in the evidence; there was no evidence convicting Whitehead of negligence as the sole proximate cause of the collision. The authorities cited above in support of the issue of unavoidable accident deny appellants’ proposition, “that said issue, when taken in connection with the instruction following the same, as to how to answer such issue, was confusing and misleading to the jury, and said issue as submitted contained a reasonable doubt of the clearness and understandableness of the issue by the jury, and the jury was not told clearly and understandably upon whom properly rested the burden of proof.”

In special issue No. 20, the court made the following submission of appellee’s measure of damages:

“What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will fairly and reasonably compensate the plaintiff, Mrs. Anna Wells, for the damages, if any, sustained by her by reason of the death óf her son, Frank Wells?
“You will answer this question by stating the amount in dollars and cents, if any you find.

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Related

Sproles Motor Freight Lines, Inc. v. Juge
123 S.W.2d 919 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Finck Cigar Co. v. Campbell
133 S.W.2d 759 (Texas Supreme Court, 1939)
Sherwin-Williams Co. of Texas v. Delahoussaye
124 S.W.2d 870 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)
Finck Cigar Co. v. Campbell
114 S.W.2d 348 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Woodward v. Murphy
29 S.W.2d 828 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Standard Paving Co. v. Pyle
131 S.W.2d 200 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)
Sproles v. Rosen
84 S.W.2d 1001 (Texas Supreme Court, 1935)
Anderson v. Reichart
116 S.W.2d 772 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Wichita Valley Ry. Co. v. Minor
100 S.W.2d 1071 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
149 S.W.2d 307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arrendell-v-wells-texapp-1941.