Bratton v. American Mutual Liability Insurance Co.

419 S.W.2d 655, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2017
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 5, 1967
DocketNo. 292
StatusPublished

This text of 419 S.W.2d 655 (Bratton v. American Mutual Liability Insurance 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
Bratton v. American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., 419 S.W.2d 655, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2017 (Tex. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

SELLERS, Justice.

We take the following from Appellant’s Brief:

“This is a workmen’s compensation case, in which the plaintiff sought benefits for an injury sustained on April 19, 1966 while working for Hal Land in San Augustine County, Texas. Coverage was with the defendant, and all matters were stipulated except injury, extent and duration of disability, and the question of whether the disability was due solely to prior causes. The jury found that the plaintiff sustained an injury, sustained no total incapacity, and two weeks of partial incapacity beginning on April 19, 1966, with a wage earning capacity during partial incapacity of $32.50 a week, and the disability was not due solely to prior causes. Average weekly wage had been stipulated at $65.00 a week, and the Trial Court therefore rendered a judgment based on the jury verdict, awarding the plaintiff the total amount of $40.56. Appellant has duly perfected this appeal from the order of the Trial Court overruling his motion for new trial. In this Brief, the [656]*656parties will be referred to by their trial court designations.
“POINTS OF ERROR
“FIRST POINT
“The Trial Court erred in entering Judgment based on the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 5 of the Court’s Charge, because such answer is so against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly wrong and unjust.
“SECOND POINT
“The Trial Court erred in entering Judgment based on the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 10 of the Court’s Charge, because such answer is so against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly wrong and unjust.
“STATEMENT UNDER FIRST ' AND SECOND POINTS OF ERROR
“Special Issue No. 5 of the Court’s Charge was conditioned on an affirmative answer to Special Issue No. 4 (which the jury did answer affirmatively), and Special Issue No. 5 was as follows:
‘Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that any of such incapacity, if any you have found, was total ?’
“The jury answered Special Issue No. 5 ‘No’.
“Special Issue No. 10 was conditioned on an affirmative answer to Special Issue No. 8 (which the jury did answer affirmatively), and Special Issue No. 10 was as follows:
‘What do you find from a preponderance of the evidence to be the duration of such partial incapacity, if any you have found?’
“The jury answered Special Issue No. 10 ‘2 weeks’.”

The appellant, on April 19, 1966, was a member of a crew working for Hal Land in San Augustine County hauling logs from the woods. The logs were of various lengths up to 40 feet, and from one to two feet in diameter. Briefly stated, the logs were snaked out of the woods and placed in piles and then the truck was drawn up alongside of the pile, and loading of the truck takes place. The first thing done is to place a log alongside the wheels of the truck on the side where the pile of logs is stacked, and the actual lifting of the logs onto the truck is done by machinery operated on the opposite side of the truck being loaded by means of a cable with tongs hooked to each end of the logs to be loaded. Then this cable would be tightened from the opposite side of the truck, pulling the log from the stack over against the log placed against the wheels of the truck and then on up onto the bed of the truck. On April 19, 1966, the appellant was hooking tongs to one end of the logs being loaded. At the time of the accident the truck had been loaded, and appellant and another member of the crew were in the process of tying a chain or cable around the logs on the truck so that they would not fall off. During this process, appellant was standing about midway between the front and back of the loaded truck on the side where the logs lay against the wheels. A log was moved behind appellant over against the log where he was standing, catching appellant’s leg and foot between the two logs. Appellant got his foot loose and being asked if it hurt him, said that it did. However, he worked on until noon, this happening about ten o’clock in the morning, but did not work in the afternoon. Appellant did not desire to see a doctor at the time but said he would just wait until quitting time to go in to town. That evening, when they went in to town, one of Mr. Land’s hands with whom appellant rode in, carried him to a doctor who was not in, so he was carried to Dr. Buchele who x-rayed and examined appellant and found no broken bones and only some swelling in the leg, and gave him a prescription for medicine [657]*657which the appellant did not have filled. The next day one of Mr. Land’s employees called on appellant to see if he needed anything, and appellant asked him to get his money for his work, which the employee did. Two days after appellant was injured, he filed a claim with the Industrial Accident Board for compensation, and on May 2, 1967, was sent to Dr. Dickerson by his attorney for examination. Here is appellant’s version of the accident as given on the trial and as related to Dr. Dickerson :

“Q Now then, tell me just how it was that you got hurt?
“A Well, we was binding the truck down. The truck driver throwed the cable across. Quite naturally, I was on this side fixing to pass it back and then the log hit me. It knocked me down across the wheel log. I didn’t know what happened at the time. I jumped around there and got aloose and then I seen what had happened.
“Q Well now, you were facing which way now?
“A I was facing the truck and the log just like that to the truck, and the log come from behind.
“Q All right, and where — you say the log came from behind you?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q Where did it come from?
“A It come from back off a pile of logs behind me.
“Q It was on a pile of logs?
“A Yes, sir, behind me, with tongs.
“Q Now, how high would this pile of logs be, Will?
“A Well, possibly — I couldn’t exactly say — some four or five or six logs thick.
“Q Four or five or six logs high?
“A Piled up, you know, in there.
“Q Now, what size logs are we talking about ?
“A We’re talking about pretty good logs. That log would be like that. (Indicating)
“Q How long longs were these?
“A Well, we was cutting forty foot logs and thirties, like that, I don’t know just exactly whether that was one of the forties or something longer or something shorter. It was a long log.
“Q Now, this log that hit you, were the tongs hooked into it?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q Who had hooked those tongs in there ?
“A We left them hooked. We always left them. I left one and Mr. Jake left another.

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Bluebook (online)
419 S.W.2d 655, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2017, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bratton-v-american-mutual-liability-insurance-co-texapp-1967.