Brannon v. Pacific Employers Ins. Co.

235 S.W.2d 669, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 2432
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 7, 1950
DocketNo. 12230
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 235 S.W.2d 669 (Brannon v. Pacific Employers 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
Brannon v. Pacific Employers Ins. Co., 235 S.W.2d 669, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 2432 (Tex. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinions

CODY, Justice

This is a suit by an employee, against the compensation carrier of his employer and, judging from the formal allegations of his petition, the suit is one to rescind a compromise settlement of plaintiff’s claim for compensation for injuries sustained on October 9, 1947, in the course of his employment, which settlement plaintiff alleged was induced by fraud of the compensation carrier (defendant). It may be added that this is the second appeal of this case and the Supreme Court in its opinion declaring the law of the case made it clear that the case, as plead, was one to rescind for alleged fraud a compromise settlement agreement of an employee’s claim for compensation, as a preliminary step necessary to be taken by the employee to prosecuting his claim for compensation before the Industrial Accident Board, 224 S.W.2d 466. And since the Supreme Court’s opinion was delivered there have been no material amendments of the pleadings of the parties which would in any way change the law of the case as laid down by the Supreme Court. However, at the conclusion of the evidence, the plaintiff urged below that the trial court had no jurisdiction over this case but that, to the contrary, the plaintiff’s claim for compensation is now pending before the Industrial Accident Board because plaintiff alleges it was made to appear by the undisputed evidence that the Board had not acted finally on the proposed compromise settlement agreement which plaintiff sought, in this proceeding, to have set .aside on the ground of fraud. And it is plaintiff’s principal point on this appeal that the trial court erred in submitting any issue to the jury other than one inquiring ■whether or not the Board had finally approved the proposed compromise settlement.

In the pleading upon which plaintiff went to trial below, he alleged, among other things, that on November 17, 1947, he was summoned to the offices of the defendant, the compensation carrier, and was there informed that he was to receive his accumulated compensation to the extent of $115.00, and in that connection was asked to sign a paper there tendered him, which he signed accordingly and received $115.00; that thereafter on December 3, 1947, he received from the Industrial Accident Board a receipt for $100.00 with draft attached for said sum, together with instructions from the Board to execute said receipt and draft, and plaintiff then learned for the first time from said documents that in signing the paper in defendant’s offices on November 17, he had purportedly executed a compromise settlement of his claim for compensation, which claim exceeded more than $10,-000.00, for $215.00. Plaintiff further alleged that as soon as he learned thereof, he declined to execute the aforesaid receipt and draft but would produce the same upon the trial.

At the conclusion of the evidence, as stated before, plaintiff presented to the court a motion to the effect that the undisputed evidence showed (1) that there had been no full satisfaction of the compromise agreement and (2) that the undisputed evidence showed there had been no final approval 'by the Board of the purported compromise settlement, and that the matter was still pending before the Board undis-posed of and the Board has sole jurisdiction thereof as a matter of law.

The court, however, refused to find that it was without the jurisdiction which plaintiff had requested to be exercised, and the court accordingly submitted the case to the jury upon special issues which, so far as they were defendant’s special issues, were in conformity with the law of the case as declared by the Supreme Court upon the former appeal. There was no special issue submitted inquiring with respect to fraud which, of course, was a plaintiff’s special issue, and plaintiff requested no such sub[671]*671mission and made no objection to the trial court’s failure to submit any such special issue.

The sole special issue that was requested by plaintiff to go to the jury was “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged settlement agreement was not completed? ■ Answer ‘It was completed’ or ‘it was not completed.’ ” The court declined to give such requested special issue. ■

Upon the answers of the jury to the special issues which the court submitted to the jury, the court rendered judgment that plaintiff take nothing by his suit. The affect of the judgment was to hold that the compromise agreement was binding upon plaintiff. Plaintiff predicates his appeal upon four points. His first point is “The trial court erred in not sustaining plaintiff’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto because there was no evidence of a final and formal approval of the alleged settlement agreement by the Industrial Accident Board. Jurisdiction to determine the matter is still reposing in the Board * * By his third point, plaintiff complained of the court’s submission of Special Issue No. 4 “because there was not sufficient evidence to sustain same as presented. There "was no proof of a final and formal approval of the alleged settlement agreement by the Board upon which this issue is based, also, there was not sufficient evidence of such approval by the Board.” (We omit giving plaintiff’s other points as they complain of the submission of defendant’s special issues, which were submitted by the court in obvious compliance with the law of the case as declared by the Supreme Court upon the former appeal.)

Opinion

It is clear that, under the constitution and general statutes of the state, the appropriate courts have the jurisdiction to set aside a compromise settlement, which has been induced by fraud, of an employee’s claim for compensation where said settlement has been finally approved by the Industrial Accident Board. Indeed, such jurisdiction is lodged exclusively in the courts, see Supreme Court’s opinion on former appeal, 224 S.W.2d 466, and it is a part of the public policy enforced by the courts that where a party, invokes the exercise of a jurisdiction within the court’s general powers, he will not thereafter be heard to urge that the court was without the jurisdiction to render the order' or judgment rendered in response to the action of the party invoking the exercise of such jurisdiction. Nicholson v. Mills; Tex.Civ.App., 227 S.W.2d 354; Spence v. State National Bank, Tex.Com.App., 5 S.W.2d 754, 756; J. Weingarten, Inc., v. Sanchez, Tex.Civ.App., 228 S.W.2d 303; Panos v. Foley Bros. Dry Goods Co., Tex.Civ.App., 198 S.W.2d 494, 496. But this rule does not apply here because 'before the court rendered judgment in this case, in the exercise of its jurisdiction, which had been invoked by plaintiff, the plaintiff urged that the court was without jurisdiction to act. Had the plaintiff seen fit to do so, he could have taken a non-suit at the conclusion of the evidence, and had he done so, he would clearly have been free to urge that the court did not have any jurisdiction over his claim. And we can think of no basis for holding that, by invoking the court’s jurisdiction to set aside the compromise agreement for fraud, the plaintiff was bound, as having elected the right to such a remedy. Here, the plaintiff did not have two rights, between which he must elect. That is, he did not have a right to invoke the-jurisdiction of the court to rescind, and at the same time also have a right to proceed before the Board.

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

Related

Moore v. Moore
430 S.W.2d 247 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Pacific Employers Insurance v. Brannon
242 S.W.2d 185 (Texas Supreme Court, 1951)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
235 S.W.2d 669, 1950 Tex. App. LEXIS 2432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brannon-v-pacific-employers-ins-co-texapp-1950.