Bourg Chemical Distributing, Inc. v. Mosier

955 S.W.2d 140, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5446, 1997 WL 638796
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 16, 1997
DocketNo. 09-95-324 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 955 S.W.2d 140 (Bourg Chemical Distributing, Inc. v. Mosier) 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
Bourg Chemical Distributing, Inc. v. Mosier, 955 S.W.2d 140, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5446, 1997 WL 638796 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

LARRY STARR, Justice

(Assigned).

Our Opinion of August 28, 1997, is withdrawn and this Opinion is substituted. Appellants’ motion for rehearing is denied.

This is a personal injury products liability ease tried to a jury. It is grounded in both strict liability and negligence. The jury found that appellants (Bourg Chemical Distributing and Larry Bourg, hereafter referred to as “Bourg”) failed to label a drum of highly flammable chemical solvent as required by federal regulations. Bruce Mosier received serious burn injuries while working in an enclosed potable water tank during the construction of a ferry boat. Bryan Greer was also injured. The jury found the injuries to Mosier and Greer were caused by Bourg’s failure to properly label the drum of MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). Judgment for compensatory damages, including loss of consortium for Mosier’s wife and children, was entered on the jury’s verdict. The trial court disregarded the jury’s findings pertaining to punitive damages.

Bourg presents four points of error. The first two points contend the jury’s findings that Bourg failed to label the drum of MEK as required by federal regulations and that such failure caused the injuries to Mosier and Greer are supported by no evidence or factually insufficient evidence. In point number three, Bourg contends the trial court erroneously admitted prejudicial evidence concerning Mosier’s daughter, i.e., Megan’s own unrelated disabilities. By point number four Bourg contends the jury’s findings for Megan’s loss of parental consortium are not supported by sufficient evidence and are grossly excessive and manifestly unjust.

By cross-point, appellees contend the trial court erred in disregarding the jury’s findings of gross negligence, intentional conduct and malice and eliminating the award of punitive damages.

We conclude the trial court’s judgment is correct and affirm the judgment. We discuss the points raised under three headings: “Jury Findings on Liability,” “Megan’s Loss of Consortium,” and “Punitive Damages.”

JURY FINDINGS ON LIABILITY

In reviewing a “no evidence” point of error we consider only the evidence tending to support the finding, viewing it in its most favorable light. Mancorp, Inc. v. Culpepper, 802 S.W.2d 226, 227 (Tex.1990). We must give effect to all reasonable inferences that may properly be drawn from such evidence and disregard all contrary or conflicting evidence. Best v. Ryan Auto Group, Inc., 786 S.W.2d 670, 671 (Tex.1990). If there is any probative evidence, more than a scintilla, supporting the finding, the “no evidence” [142]*142point must be overruled. Sherman v. First Nat'l Bank, 760 S.W.2d 240, 242 (Tex.1988).

The court’s charge instructed the jury that “Federal regulations require a distributor of MEK to print on or affix to each container for sale a red diamond flammable liquid label and to identify the product and the hazard class. This information must be in a form that is durable, weather resistant, and able to withstand, without substantial change in color, a thirty day exposure to conditions incident to transportation that reasonably could be expected to be encountered by the labeled package. A failure to comply with this law is negligence in itself.” The jury then found that Bourg failed to label the drum of MEK involved in the occurrence as required by federal regulations, which was a proximate cause of the occurrence, and further found a marketing defect in the marketing of the containers, marketing defect being defined in the charge as being “... the failure to give warnings required by law.” The marketing defect was found by the jury to be a producing cause of the occurrence.

The evidence shows Orange Shipbuilding was constructing a ferry boat. The wrong type of white paint was put on the interior of a potable water tank. It could not be removed by sand blasting because it was still wet. The paint foreman, Eldon Smith, instructed two painters, Mosier and Greer, to get MEK from one of a number of fifty-five gallon drums containing MEK and wipe the undried white paint from the water tank. Because they were using MEK in an enclosed space without proper ventilation and with an unprotected droplight, a fire resulted causing serious injuries to Mosier and some injury to Greer.

Austin Green testified that at the time of the accident he was the purchasing agent at Orange Shipyard. All of the paint supplies were bought by Orange Shipyard. Green purchased the MEK involved in the accident. It was bought from Bourg. At that time MEK was not purchased from any other source. Records of the purchases were sub-poened and introduced into evidence. Austin stated that there was no doubt in his mind that Bourg supplied the MEK that Mosier and Greer were using.

Both Mosier and Greer testified about being instructed by Eldon Smith, the paint foreman, to get the MEK, rags and buckets. They both testified that they know what a red diamond decal is and what it looks like. They testified they did not see such a red diamond decal on any of the MEK drums. Greer saw a stencil on the top of the drum from which the MEK was taken showing that the product was MEK, that it came from Bourg and that it is flammable. These circumstances, viewed most favorably from ap-pellees’ standpoint, amount to more than a mere scintilla of evidence that Bourg failed to have the proper weather resistant red diamond decals on the drums when delivered to Orange Shipbuilding.

The testimony of the painters, Mosier, Greer and Bern Bembry shows that they knew that MEK is flammable and commonly used by painters to clean equipment. Mosier and Greer did not know that MEK is highly combustible and in a hazard class calling for a red diamond decal. The record indicates that had Mosier seen the red diamond decal, he would have recognized it and thought further about the dangers of MEK. It is a reasonable inference that the absence of the red diamond decal constituted a failure to warn amounting to both a “proximate cause” and a “producing cause” of the accident, but for which the accident would not have occurred. This evidence, in addition to the expert testimony of Dr. Gary Nelson to the effect that the failure to properly label was a cause of the accident constitutes more than a scintilla of evidence on causation. A jury question being raised on both the aspects of improper or defective labeling and legal causation, appellants’ no evidence contentions in the first and second points of error are overruled.

In reviewing an insufficient evidence point of error, we consider all of the evidence in the entire record. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660; 661 (1951). We will reverse only if the finding is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence that it is clearly wrong and unjust. Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1986).

[143]*143In addition to the lay testimony outlined above, there was expert testimony introduced by appellees reinforcing the testimony of the lay witnesses to the effect that the barrels of MEK were from Bourg and that they were not properly marked by the appropriate red diamond decal.

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955 S.W.2d 140, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 5446, 1997 WL 638796, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bourg-chemical-distributing-inc-v-mosier-texapp-1997.