Bell v. Fore

419 S.W.2d 686, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2630
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 12, 1967
Docket7817
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 419 S.W.2d 686 (Bell v. Fore) 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
Bell v. Fore, 419 S.W.2d 686, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2630 (Tex. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

*688 FANNING, Justice.

This is a suit for damages for the deaths of William Payton, Jr., and John Homer Bell, and for personal injuries received by Frank T. Bransford. A take nothing judgment was rendered by the trial court. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Bill Purdy’s store is located on the south side of U. S. Highway No. 67 and about five miles west of Texarkana in Bowie County, Texas. Defendant Addie Campbell, sometimes called Addie Campbell Sharp, stopped at this store about 6:00 p. m. of Saturday, November 14, 1964, to purchase some supplies. At this time, a light rain was falling. After defendant Campbell had completed her purchases, she drove her pickup truck back onto the roadway of the highway and was proceeding in a westerly direction toward her home when a motor vehicle, being driven by defendant Marshall and pulling a trailer containing a horse, struck her motor vehicle in the rear. The trailer containing the horse thereupon overturned and came to a stop on the roadway of the highway.

Shortly thereafter, while William Payton, Jr., appellant Estella Payton’s husband, and others were attempting to remove the trailer and the horse in it from the roadway, another motor vehicle being driven by W. W. Fore westward along the highway struck the trailer, and thereby William Payton, Jr., and John Homer Bell sustained personal injuries of which both died, Payton on February, 26 1965, and Bell immediately. Also injured, but not fatally, were Bill Purdy and Frank T. Bransford, who, together with Bell and Payton were also trying to remove the trailer from the roadway and thereby to “prevent a serious accident”.

Thereafter, appellant Jewel Fay Bell filed suit individually and as next friend for the minor children of herself and decedent John Homer Bell against W. W. Fore and Myrtle Fore, his wife, who was riding with Fore as a passenger in the Fore motor vehicle at the time of the collision, Thomas J. Marshall, Addie Campbell Sharp, and Ed Sharp, the husband of appellee Addie Campbell Sharp, to recover damages for the wrongful death of John Homer Bell. Appellant Frank T. Bransford intervened in the suit filed by appellant Jewel Fay Bell and sought recovery of damages from the same defendants for his personal injuries.

Appellant Estella Payton and five of her adult children, such children being joined by their husbands and wives, also filed suit against Woodrow W. Fore, Myrtle Fore, and Addie Campbell Sharp, Ed Sharp, and Thomas J. Marshall seeking to recover damages for the wrongful death of William Payton, Jr.

Thereafter all plaintiffs in both suits moved for and were granted non-suits against W. W. Fore and Myrtle Fore, but the Fores continued as parties in the two suits at the instance of the defendants who sought contribution from the Fores in the event recovery should be made against them.

Since the two suits involved common questions of law and fact, they were consolidated for the trial which was to a jury. The trial judge signed a judgment for the appellees upon the jury’s verdict and in accordance with the appellees’ prayers. Estella Payton, Jewel Fay Bell and other plaintiffs Bell and intervenor Frank Brans-ford have appealed.

The verdict of the jury found Mrs. Sharp guilty of certain acts of negligence proximately causing the first collision in question, absolved the defendant Marshall from any acts of negligence proximately causing the first collision in question, found the defendant W. W. Fore guilty of several acts of negligence proximately causing the second collision and the injuries to John Homer Bell, William Payton, Jr., and Frank T. Bransford, found that the way and manner in which W. W. Fore was driving his vehicle immediately before the second collision was a new, independent and intervening cause of such second collision, found that John Homer Bell, William Payton, Jr., and *689 Frank T. Bransford assumed the risk of a dangerous condition existing upon the roadway and knew and appreciated the nature and extent of the danger attendant to assisting in the removal of the trailer from the roadway and voluntarily exposed themselves to such danger immediately before the second collision, and found that at the time of the second collision John Homer Bell, William Payton, Jr., and Frank T. Bransford were attempting to rescue W. W. Fore and his vehicle from danger, and were attempting to rescue and remove from danger the participants in the first collision.

The trial court in its judgment, after reciting the various findings of the jury, stated in part as follows:

“The verdict was duly received by the Court as the verdict of the jury and the Court having considered the verdict, in which the jury found the Defendant Thomas Jerry Marshall free from any negligence causing the first collision in question in this suit, but found the Defendant Addie Campbell Sharp guilty of certain acts of negligence proximately causing the first collision in question, but there being no finding of any act of negligence on the part of the Defendant Addie Campbell Sharp proximately causing the second collision or the injuries or damages to the Plaintiffs Bell and Plaintiffs Payton, or Intervenor Bransford, and the jury further finding the deceased Bell and deceased Payton and Intervenor Bransford guilty of assumption of risk and voluntary exposure to a known and appreciated danger immediately prior to the second collision in question, and further finding several acts of negligence on the part of the Defendant W. W. Fore proximately causing the second collision in question and that the acts of negligence on the part of W. W. Fore were a new and intervening and independent cause of the second collision which caused the injuries and damages complained of by the Plaintiffs Bell and Plaintiffs Payton and Intervenor Bransford, and also finding that immediately prior to the second collision the deceased Bell and deceased, Payton and Intervenor Bransford were undertaking to rescue the Defendant W. W. Fore as well as the participants in the first collision, the Court is of the opinion that judgment should be rendered that all Plaintiffs take nothing; the Plaintiffs Bell, Payton and Intervenor Bransford should take nothing because the Court is of the opinion that the acts of negligence on the part of the Defendant Addie Campbell Sharp which contributed to cause the first collision in question were but passive acts and were not continuing active causes of the second collision in question, but the negligence of the Defendant W. W. Fore was the primary and active cause of the second collision in question, and if the Court be mistaken in this as a matter of law, then the jury has so found by its verdict and its answers to the special issues submitted; additionally, Plaintiffs Bell and Payton and the Intervenor Bransford should take nothing because the rescue doctrine does not apply as a matter of law, and the deceased Bell and deceased Payton and Intervenor Brans-ford voluntarily exposed themselves to the risks and danger which was known and appreciated prior to the second collision, but if the Court be mistaken and the rescue doctrine does apply, then by virtue of the specific findings of negligence on the part of those whom the deceased Bell and Payton and Intervenor Bransford were purportedly undertaking to rescue, said Plaintiffs Bell, Payton and Intervenor Bransford are barred from recovery by imputed negligence.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
419 S.W.2d 686, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-fore-texapp-1967.