Brock v. Underwood

436 S.W.2d 557, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2567
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1968
DocketNo. 7892
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 436 S.W.2d 557 (Brock v. Underwood) 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
Brock v. Underwood, 436 S.W.2d 557, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2567 (Tex. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal by Jane Brock from a judgment based upon a jury verdict for Grace Underwood and husband, D. B. Underwood, in a common law negligence action growing out of a collision between the automobiles of Mrs. Brock and the Under-woods at an uncontrolled intersection.

The jury found appellant failed to yield the right-of-way, failed to keep a proper lookout, that each failure was negligence and a proximate cause of the collision, that she failed to make a proper application of her brakes and that failure was a proximate cause of the collision. The jury found Martha Smith, the driver of appellee’s vehicle, did not fail to yield the right-of-way, did not fail to make proper application of her brakes and was not driving at an excessive rate of speed immediately before the collision.

Appellant’s first two points raise questions of no evidence and factually insufficient evidence to support the issues of failure of appellant to yield the right-of-way and the same questions of the jury findings that appellee’s vehicle did not fail to so yield. Her third point, argued with the first two, is asserted error of the court in failing to define “approximately the same time” as “substantially in advance”.

Appellant’s vehicle was approaching the intersection on Albany Street while travel-ling south. That street is 36 feet in width. The Underwood vehicle was approaching west on 26th Street on the proper side of the street. That vehicle had travelled 26 feet into the intersection and the Brock vehicle 8 feet before the impact, which occurred in the northwest quadrant of the intersection.

There is probative evidence that both appellant and Martha Smith were driving approximately 30 mph. as they approached the intersection; that Mrs. Smith applied her brakes sufficiently to lay down 12 feet of skid marks before the Brock vehicle struck appellee’s vehicle on its right front fender. There is not any evidence of application of the brakes on the Brock vehicle. The weather was clear and the streets dry.

By brief appellant admits the Underwood vehicle was already 18 feet into the intersection before she started into it with her vehicle but contends in substance that the two vehicles, as a matter of law, arrived at the intersection at approximately the same time within the purview of Art. 6701d, Sec.

[559]*55971(a)1 and (b)2, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St. Even a cursory glance at Sec. 71(a) and 71(b) suggests the troublesome question is the legal meaning of “approximately the same time”. Legal articles have so recognized, as has Chief Justice Calvert of the Supreme Court of Texas.3

The trial court here instructed the jury in the substantial language of “(a)” and “(b)” with respect to an uncontrolled intersection. No objections are shown to have been made to such instructions. The real thrust of appellant’s objections was the failure of the trial court to give the issues and instructions recommended in the Texas Law Review article cited in footnote 3.

This court has held it is not reversible error for a trial court to give the instructions substantially as given here. Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. v. Orr, 210 S.W. 2d 863 (Tex.Civ.App.-Amarillo, 1948, affirmed 147 Tex. 383, 215 S.W.2d 862 without a discussion of this particular point). The Austin Intermediate Appellate Court has held that even if error, the giving of such charge was harmless. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Krueger, 239 S.W.2d 669 (Tex. Civ.App. Austin, 1951, writ ref’d, n. r. e.).

Appellant urges venturesomeness upon this court by insisting that we reverse and remand for failure of the trial court to give the issues and instructions suggested in the Texas Law Review article cited in footnote 3 and approved by Chief Justice Calvert of the Supreme Court of Texas at the beginning of such article. It is well to note that Chief Justice Calvert said the subject article would be helpful to “lawyers and trial judges” in formulating special issues and that “I commend the suggested issues and instructions”. Such statement is a far cry from suggesting that an intermediate appellate court send a case back for trial for failure to give such issues and definitions when the instructions given have been approved, thus denying appellees their recovery under established procedures. Had the trial court submitted the case as suggested in the subject article we would approve it in deference to Chief Justice Calvert’s recommendation to lawyers and trial judges, but as the record stands we prefer to “be not the first by whom the new are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside.” The experiment would be unfair to plaintiff who has recovered judgment under established rules. If such change from established procedures is to be made (and the cited Texas Law Review article definitely points up the need for change) the place for its genesis is in the trial court, as Chief Justice Calvert suggests. In other words, the question here is not whether the issues and instructions suggested in the cited Texas Law Review article are correct but whether the method in which the case was submitted was reversible error. The authorities above cited answer the question in the negative.

The right-of-way answers are not against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence. In determining that question we must look to all the probative evidence. King v. King, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951). Appellant did not remember any of the facts causing the collision. Mrs. Smith’s testimony shows she entered the intersection first. All physical facts show likewise. The investigating officer, Robertson, first testified affirmatively to a leading question stating:

“Q. Officer, based on the physical evidence of these cars colliding out there in the intersection, if they were both travelling at approxi-
[560]*560mately the same speed they would have had to arrive at this intersection at approximately the same time to have this collision occur, would they not?”

He later changed that testimony, after recognizing he had been confused, and stated “* * * if they had got there approximately the same time it (the collision) would have been more * * * in the center of the street * * (Parenthetical statement ours) The physical evidence shows the Underwood car had already travelled 18 feet into the intersection before appellant’s car started into the intersection, despite the application of brakes on the Underwood car.

“Approximate”, the adjective form of the adverb “approximately”, is defined as “nearly resembling, near to correctness, nearly exact”. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, a Merriam-Webster, 1949. Under these dictionary definitions the vehicles did not enter the intersection at approximately the same time because the Underwood vehicle had already penetrated 18 feet into the intersection before the other vehicle started into it. Numerous intermediate appellate courts have held that the automobile entering the intersection first has the right-of-way. Three examples are the following: Waco Transit Corp. v. Resvanis, 364 S.W.2d 302 (Tex.Civ.App. Waco, 1963, n. w. h.) ; Altum v.

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Bluebook (online)
436 S.W.2d 557, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brock-v-underwood-texapp-1968.