Beck v. Craven

360 S.W.2d 827, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2754
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 27, 1962·No. No. 13976·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

COLEMAN, Justice.

This is a suit for damages in which a judgment was entered that the plaintiff take nothing. Plaintiff has appealed, contending that the jury’s answers to the damage issues were against the great weight [828] and preponderance of the evidence and that the court’s charge was erroneous.

All issues on primary and contributory negligence, sole proximate cause and unavoidable accident were answered favorably to plaintiff. Issues 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were answered “none”. These Issues read:

8. “What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will reasonably and fairly compensate the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck for such physical pain, if any, and mental anguish, if any, as you find from a preponderance of the evidence the said Patricia Matula Beck suffered from the time of the collision to the time of this trial, resulting from her injuries, if any, in the collision in question?
“Let your answer, if any, be in dollars and cents.”
9. “What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will reasonably and fairly compensate the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck for such physical pain, if any, and mental anguish, if any, as you find from a preponderance of the evidence the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck will, with reasonable probability, suffer in the future, resulting from her injuries, if any, in the collision in question?
“Let your answer, if any, be in dollars and cents.”
10. “What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will reasonably and fairly compensate the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck for such diminished capacity, if any, to labor and earn money in the future as you find and believe from a preponderance of the evidence the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck will, with reasonable probability, sustain in the future, resulting from her injuries, if any, in the collision in question.
“Let your answer, if any, be in dollars and cents.”
11. “What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will reasonably and fairly compensate the Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck for such reasonable and necessary medical expenses as she will in reasonable probability incur in the future, if any, resulting from her injuries, if any, in the collision in question ?
“Let your answer, if any, be in dollars and cents.”
12. “What sum of money, if any, if paid now in cash, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence will reasonably and fairly compensate the Plaintiff Alvin Matula for the reasonable and necessary medical expenses, if any, incurred by him to the date of this trial resulting from the injuries, if any, sustained by his daughter, Patricia Matula Beck in the collision in question.
“Let your answer, if any, be in dollars and cents.”

The trial court submitted the following special instruction:

“You are further instructed that in answering Special Issue Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, you shall not take into consideration any physical pain, past or future, mental anguish, past or future, or diminished capacity to labor or earn money, past or future, caused by any disease, sickness, injury, injuries, bodily infirmities, bodily conditions and/or the natural progression thereof of Plaintiff Patricia Matula Beck which pre-existed or occurred prior to April S, 1959, or which existed or occurred after April 5, 1959, and in answering these issues you must restrict your consideration to those damages, if any, which are solely the direct and proximate result of the accident of April 5, 1959, made the basis of this suit.”

[829] The Plaintiff objected to this instruction on, among others, the following grounds:

“a) First, that this is a comment on the weight of the evidence, in that it tells the jury that the plaintiff did have a disease, sickness, injury, injuries, bodily infirmity, bodily conditions and/ or the natural progression thereof either before April 5, 1959 or after April 5, 1959.
“b) Second, that this is an incorrect instruction in that it tells the jury not to consider any physical pain, past or future, mental anguish past or future, or diminished capacity to labor or earn money, past or future, caused by bodily infirmities or bodily conditions which existed after April 5, 1959, and the injuries on which this suit is based are bodily conditions or infirmities which existed after April 5, 1959, and in effect the Court is instructing the jury not to consider the Plaintiff’s injuries which existed after April 5, 1959.
“e) Fifth, the instruction is misleading in that it tells the jury not to consider any physical pain, past or future, mental anguish, past or future, or diminished capacity to labor or earn money, past or future, caused by any bodily infirmity or bodily condition which existed after April 5, 1959, and the Plaintiffs say that the injuries which are the basis of this suit, for which they are suing for damages, are injuries which existed after April 5, 1959, and that they are bodily infirmities and bodily conditions which existed after April 5, 1959, and therefore, in effect, the Court is instructing the jury not to consider the Plaintiff’s injuries which existed after April 5, 1959.”

These objections were refused and the claimed error was properly preserved in the motion for new trial.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Beck v. Craven, 360 S.W.2d 827, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2754 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

360 S.W.2d 827 (Beck v. Craven) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 2016
Royal v. Cameron
382 S.W.2d 335 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1964)