Castille v. Southern Iron and Metal

885 S.W.2d 653, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2589, 1994 WL 575764
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 20, 1994
DocketNo. 09-93-197 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 885 S.W.2d 653 (Castille v. Southern Iron and Metal) 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
Castille v. Southern Iron and Metal, 885 S.W.2d 653, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2589, 1994 WL 575764 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

Appellant, Howard Castille, timely appeals from the granting of a motion for summary judgment adverse to him. The paramount issue is the application and applicability of the “borrowed servant doctrine” to the record before us. Castille pleaded that on or about April 2, 1991, he was an employee of ELH Contracting, Inc. (ELH). He was working at the plant of Southern Iron and Metal (Southern) on College Street in Beaumont. A second defendant, Dick Utterback (Utterback) allegedly drove a front-end loader into a half-inch plate of steel, knocking the plate of steel over and onto Castille causing severe, serious injuries to Castille’s head, neck, back, arms, legs, and other parts of his body.

Castille pleaded that while he was on Southern’s premises he suffered serious injuries as a direct result of a dangerous condition on the premises of Southern. Castille contends that Southern should have known of such dangerous conditions and that Southern’s negligence and lack of attention in failing to remedy such dangerous conditions caused or contributed to cause the serious bodily, personal injuries sustained by Cas-tille. Castille additionally averred that Southern and its agents, servants, and employees, negligently caused and also negligently permitted such dangerous conditions to exist in spite of the fact that the defendants and Southern’s agents and employees knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care, should have known of the existence of the said dangerous conditions and that there was a likelihood of an individual being injured as the plaintiff was later injured.

Castille specifically pleaded that Southern was guilty of acts, wrongs, and omissions, each of which constituted negligence. He [655]*655pleaded five separate allegations of negligence.

As to Utterback, Castille pleaded that Ut-terbaek was also guilty of negligence in failing to operate the front-end loader in a safe manner, in failing to maintain a proper lookout, and in several other acts of commission and omission amounting to negligence. Cas-tille alleges that these various and sundry acts and omissions were a proximate cause of his personal injuries and damages.

The defendants answered and pleaded several defenses including a general denial, that Castille was guilty of negligence, that plaintiffs injuries were caused by the negligence of third persons over which the defendants had no control and that the incident and plaintiffs injuries and damages, if any, were the result of an unavoidable accident.

The defendants specially pleaded that Southern was a subscriber under the Texas Workers’ Compensation law and that Castille was a borrowed servant and that as a result of plaintiffs status that his sole right to recovery is restricted solely to the benefits of the Texas Workers’ Compensation law. The defense maintains that Castille was the borrowed servant of Southern who was a subscriber and thus, Castille had no right of action against Utterback who was a fellow employee of a subscribing employer. The issues were thus joined by the pleadings.

At the threshold we are met with the standards or criteria of review by an intermediate appellant court in a summary judgment proceeding. A comprehensive and inclusive statement of the standards of review as applicable here is set out clearly in Nixon v. Mr. Property Management, 690 S.W.2d 546 (Tex.1985). We quote from Nixon:

1. The movant for summary judgment has the burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
2. In deciding whether or not there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to the non-movant will be taken as true; and
3.Every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the non-movant and any doubts resolved in his favor. (emphasis added)

Id., at 548-549; Turboff v. Gertner, Aron & Ledet, Inv., 763 S.W.2d 827, 829 (Tex.App.— Houston [14th Dist.] 1988, writ denied). Moreover, the usual presumption that the judgment is correct does not apply. See Montgomery v. Kennedy, 669 S.W.2d 309, 311 (Tex.1984); Great American R. Ins. Co. v. San Antonio Pl. Sup. Co., 391 S.W.2d 41, 47 (Tex.1965).

Justice Doggett speaking and writing for an unanimous Supreme Court of Texas in Acker v. Texas Water Com’n, 790 S.W.2d 299, 302 (Tex.1990), wrote and held as follows:

In the review of a summary judgment, the movant has the burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Evidence favorable to the non-movant will be taken as true when deciding whether a material fact issue exists. All reasonable inferences must be indulged in favor of the non-movant and any doubts resolved in its favor. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985).

Under this record it is significant and noteworthy, as Justice Doggett specifically held, that any and all doubts in this matter must be resolved in favor of Castille and against the defendants.

In the briefest manner, Castille maintains that he was very seriously injured when he was hit by a one-half inch plate of steel which had been actually knocked over by a front-end loader that was driven and operated by Utterback, an employee of Southern. Castille stoutly maintains he was an employee of ELH. ELH was alleged to be a leasing agent for Busby Maintenance and Construction Company (Busby).

The defendants’ motion for summary judgment can be summed up in a fair and balanced manner by pointing out that the defendants took the position that the summary judgment evidence conclusively established that: (1) Howard Castille was at the time of [656]*656his alleged accident a borrowed servant of Southern, a division of Commercial Metals Company; and (2) Southern Iron was a “subscriber” as defined in the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act (Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 8309 § 1, et. seq.) on the very occasion in question. To this motion for summary judgment Castille made a lengthy response.

Castille swore by deposition that he was working for Busby and he got hooked up with Busby by putting in his application and his resume and that his employer Busby sent him over to Southern’s place of business. The sworn testimony of Castille demonstrated that Utterback was Southern’s employee who was out there and had the day-to-day overseeing of the yard and the plant and the operation of a machine known as a shredder. At times, Utterback would give Castille additional instructions as to the shredder’s operation. Castille stated that he was employed by and he was working for Busby but he was also obliged from time to time to take orders from any supervisor at the plant.

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Bluebook (online)
885 S.W.2d 653, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2589, 1994 WL 575764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castille-v-southern-iron-and-metal-texapp-1994.