Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co.

153 S.W.2d 533, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 699
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 19, 1941
DocketNo. 11237
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 153 S.W.2d 533 (Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co.) 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
Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co., 153 S.W.2d 533, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 699 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

This appeal, in a compensation case, by Associated Indemnity Corporation (found by the court, independently of the jury’s verdict, to have been compensation-carrier for Perry Thompson, a subscriber) and Emmett L. Craig (found by both court and jury to have been the compensation-claimant against all parties) as appellants, against Insurors Indemnity Company, as appellee, is from a judgment of the 61st District Court of Harris County, entered partly upon and partly notwithstanding some of the findings of the jury in response to special issues submitted;

That is, after a trial on the facts, at which each of the Indemnity Companies denied itself to have been Craig’s employer’s compensation-carrier on October 21 of 1939, when the accident he declared upon against them both occurred, and Craig himself, in turn, directly and alternatively declared that one or the other, or both of them, had been such insurer at such time., the jury, in response to 15 special issues, in which the court submitted what it then deemed to be the ultimate issues of fact raised by the pleadings and evidence in such controversy, found substantially this r “That Craig at the time of his accident on October 21, 1939, was an employee of the American Iron & Machine Works Company; that he was totally and permanently incapacitated for work, was entitled to his compensation in a lump sum, that with reference to the Humble Company welding job in Louisiana, from which Craig was returning when he received his injuries, Perry Thompson was not an independent contractor; that at the time Craig sustained his injuries, Perry Thompson did' not bear the relationship to the American Iron & Machine Works Company of an independent contractor; that Perry Thompson was in the service of the American Iron & Machine Works Company under a contract of hire, express or implied, on October 21, 1939, between him and the Amer [535]*535ican Iron & Machine Works Company; and that between March 14 and October 23, 1939 (which was the date the Associated Indemnity Corporation’s compensation policy covering Perry Thompson was in force), Perry Thompson was in the service of the American Iron & Machine Works Company under a contract of hire, express or implied, between him and the American Iron & Machine Works Company.”

Thereupon, pursuant to respective motions of appellee Insurors Indemnity and appellant Emmett L. Craig, the court, over the strenuous protest of appellant Associated Indemnity, upon a finding of its own from the evidence, to the effect that all five findings were against the undisputed evidence, disregarded the quoted jury-findings under special issues 1, 12, 13, 13a, and 14, and discharged appellee, Insurors Indemnity, from any liability whatever herein to either other litigant, and rendered its final judgment in favor of appellant Craig, as such compensation-claimant, in the lump sum of $6,876.34 against appellant, Associated Indemnity, alone.

On appeal, the Associated Indemnity, through 9 assignments of error, which, as indicated infra, were only presented in its brief here and not filed below, protests against the judgment so adverse to it, while its coappellant, Craig, through some 6 assignments in his own behalf, supplemented by an amended prayer this court on original submission of the cause permitted him to file here, seeks not only to conserve so much of the recovery as was allowed him below against the other appealing appellant, but also to have this court award him a like recovery against the appellee also — this upon his claim that the pleadings, evidence, and findings of the jury, as a whole, entitled him to a like joint and several judgment against both such Indemnity concerns, which had been allowed him by the Accident Board prior to the institution of this suit in the courts by the appellee, Insurors Indemnity, to set that award aside.

At the outset, this court is met with vigorous protest from the appellee against its consideration of any of the assignments of error of either of the appellants, on the ground that it has no jurisdiction or power to disturb the judgment so rendered in ap-pellee’s favor, because neither appellant filed a motion for new trial below, nor otherwise properly assigned any of the errors they now seek consideration of here; and, further, because there plainly exists no fundamental error apparent upon the face of this record; in other words, that this court, in the undisputed circumstances, under the provisions of R.S.Article 2092, Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. art. 2092, commonly referred to as the "Special Practice Act”, pursuant to which this cause was tried, as well as to Supreme Court Rule 71a, is limited upon this appellate-review to questions of fundamental error, apparent upon the face of the record, alone, hence cannot entertain the other and different matters tendered for its consideration by either or both of such appellants.

After careful consideration of the greatly extended arguments pro and con over this protest, it is concluded, simply, without undertaking to add anything to the discussion of a purely procedural question, that it is not well taken, under these undisputed facts and the authorities collated thereunder:

The judgment was rendered and entered in this cause by the trial court on January 4, 1941. The term of court of the 61st Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas, the court in which the case was tried, adjourned on January 5, 1941, the next day after the judgment was rendered and entered. Hence, there was not "full five days time from the rendition of the judgment” (January 4, 1941), “to the adjournment of the court for the term” (January S, 1941); wherefore, under Rule 71a, as amended, for District and County Courts (page V, 126 Tex.), and Article 1844, R. C.S. of Texas, as amended, Vernon’s Ann. Civ.St. art. 1844, this case is properly before this court for the consideration of the errors alleged to have been committed by the trial court, in the assignments of error embodied in the briefs of the two appellants. Title 42, Chapter 6, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, Article 2092, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 2092; Rule 71a, as amended by the Supreme Court, effective March 1, 1937, (p. vii of 126 Tex.); Stillman v. Hirsch, Tex.Sup., 99 S.W.2d 270; Grubstake Investment Association v. Worley, Tex.Civ.App., 116 S.W.2d 472; Southern Pine Lumber Co. v. King, Tex.Civ.App., 142 S.W.2d 560, 562; Marlett v. Brownfield, Tex.Civ.App., 145 S.W.2d 636; Pridemore v. San Angelo Standard, Inc., Tex.Civ.App., 146 S.W.2d 1048, error dismissed, judgment correct; Bedner v. Federal Underwriters Exchange, Tex.Civ.App., 133 S.W.2d 214; Art. 1844, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, as amended, Vernon’s [536]*536Ann.Civ.St. art. 1844; Commercial Standard Ins. Co. v. Noack, Tex.Com.App., 62 S.W.2d 72.

No others of the jury’s findings than the disregarded ones (Nos. 1, 12, 13, 13a, and 14) are attacked 'by any party, so they must be accepted as the established facts thereby found.

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Bluebook (online)
153 S.W.2d 533, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-indemnity-corp-v-insurors-indemnity-ins-co-texapp-1941.