Beck v. Craven

360 S.W.2d 827, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2754
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 27, 1962
DocketNo. 13976
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

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

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]*828and 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]*829The 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.

We are unable to say that either of the jury’s answers to the issues on damages were so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong. While plaintiff testified that she was injured in the collision made the basis of this suit, and there was no direct testimony that she was not injured, there were circumstances in evidence impeaching her testimony. The automobile in which the plaintiff was riding at the time of the collision was occupied by seven people. None of them, including the plaintiff, complained of injury at the scene. The plaintiff explained this by testifying that she did not realize she was hurt until her neck began to stiffen and she developed a headache about one hour after the collision. Plaintiff testified that she consulted her family physician within a few days about her condition and he prescribed heat packs, but it was later stipulated that the family physician was not consulted, and did not treat her for this condition. Plaintiff testified that she was taking medication prior to the collision which caused her to have severe headaches and that her doctor gave her other medicine for relief of the headache.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
360 S.W.2d 827, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-craven-texapp-1962.