Chacon v. ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING CO. LTD.

295 S.W.3d 715, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6345, 2009 WL 2476646
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 13, 2009
Docket13-08-00501-CV, 13-08-00558-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 295 S.W.3d 715 (Chacon v. ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING CO. LTD.) 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
Chacon v. ANDREWS DISTRIBUTING CO. LTD., 295 S.W.3d 715, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6345, 2009 WL 2476646 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by

Chief Justice VALDEZ.

Appellant, Alvino Chacon, appeals from summary judgments granted in favor of appellees, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (cause number 13-08-00558-CV), Andrews Distributing Company, Ltd., and Robert Sanchez (cause number 13-08-00501-CV). In two issues, Chacon contends that the district court erred in granting summary judgments in the appellees’ favor because: (1) the evidence did not establish as a matter of law that he intentionally disregarded a county court at law’s jurisdiction where a similar suit was previously filed; and (2) the county court at law had jurisdiction to grant Wal-Mart’s motion to designate a responsible third party and the designation tolled limitations.1 We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

[718]*718I. Background

On October 6, 2003, Chacon allegedly slipped and fell on a wet floor in a Wal-Mart store located in Kingsville, Texas. Shortly thereafter, Chacon retained the law firm of Herrman & Herrman, L.L.P. to recover damages for the injuries that he allegedly sustained, and a suit was filed within the two-year limitations period.

A. County Court Suit

On October 4, 2005, Chacon brought a premises liability claim against Wal-Mart in the Kleberg County Court at Law (hereinafter “county court”). Chacon’s original petition alleged that the county court had jurisdiction under section 25.1802 of the government code,2 and it did not specify the amount in controversy. Wal-Mart answered and filed special exceptions requesting that Chacon amend his petition to specify the maximum amount of damages sought. On December 15, 2005, Chacon amended his petition to specify that the maximum amount of damages sought was $1,000,000.

On September 1, 2006, Wal-Mart sought and received leave of court to designate Andrews Distributing, a beer distributing company, and Sanchez, an Andrews Distributing employee (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Andrews Distributing”), as responsible third parties. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 33.004 (Vernon 2008). On September 22, 2006, Chacon filed his second amended petition, which included negligence claims against Andrews Distributing, alleging that Sanchez was asked by a Wal-Mart employee to caution customers about a wet area of the store’s floor, that he failed to do so, and that Chacon was injured, in part, by Sanchez’s negligence.

On May 8, 2007, Andrews Distributing moved to dismiss Chacon’s suit for lack of jurisdiction on the ground that the amount in controversy was beyond the jurisdictional limits of the county court. Andrews Distributing argued that: (1) the county court could not hear any matter in which the amount in controversy exceeded $100,000; (2) Chacon pleaded for $1,000,000 in damages in his first and second amended petitions; and (3) he knew when suit was filed that his damages were over $100,000. See Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 25.1392 (Vernon 2004) (providing that jurisdiction for the Kleberg County Court at Law is set by, among other statutes, section 25.0003 of the government code); id. § 25.0003 (Vernon Supp. 2008) (providing that the maximum amount in controversy for county courts at law is $100,000).

In support of its motion, Andrews Distributing attached a tabulation of medical expenses and several medical bills that Chacon had disclosed to Wal-Mart through the discovery process. The tabulation, which is undated, lists bills from several medical providers and alleges that Chacon’s total medical expenses were $182,112.72. The attached bills that were used in the tabulation show that Chacon was, inter alia, treated in a Kingsville emergency room the day of the accident at a cost of $6,549.37, hospitalized at Corpus Christi Medical Center from June 9 to 12, 2004, at a cost of $100,949.00, and received several radiological scans of his lumbar region throughout 2004. The Corpus [719]*719Christi Medical Center bill includes charges for care that appear related to diabetes and a heart condition.3

Chacon responded to the dismissal motion by arguing that the suit was mistakenly filed in county court because Debra Garcia, a litigation legal assistant who drafted the petition, believed that the county court had concurrent jurisdiction with district courts, which is generally the practice in Nueces County’s county courts at law.4 Additionally, Chacon pleaded in his response that Cindy Trigo, a pre-litigation legal assistant, attempted to settle the suit for almost two years, but when no settlement was reached, suit was filed shortly before the two-year limitations period ran. Chacon contended that at the time suit was filed, neither Kyzmyck Byerly, the associate handling his case, nor Garcia “[was] aware of the full extent of [Chacon’s] injuries.” In the event of dismissal, Chacon requested a finding that his filing was an “unintentional” disregard of the county comb’s jurisdictional limits.

On June 19, 2007, the county court dismissed Chacon’s suit without prejudice and denied all other relief.

B. District Court Suit

On August 1, 2007, Chacon filed his premise liability claim in the 105th Judicial District Court of Kleberg County against Wal-Mart and Andrews Distributing. The defendants answered with a general denial. In addition, Wal-Mart asserted numerous affirmative defenses, including limitations. See Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem.Code Ann. § 16.003 (Vernon Supp. 2008) (prescribing a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims). On May 15, 2008, Chacon amended his petition to request a tolling of the limitations period under section 16.064 of the civil practice and remedies code. See id. § 16.064 (Vernon 2008).5

In the spring of 2008, Wal-Mart and Andrews Distributing filed similar motions for summary judgment on, inter alia, two grounds asserting that section 16.064 was inapplicable because Chacon’s filing of the suit in county court was not an accident or mistake, but instead, was an “intentional disregard of proper jurisdiction.”6 In support of their motions, the defendants attached substantial portions of the clerk’s record in the county court suit, which included several pleadings, the tabulation of Chacon’s medical bills, and the medical bills that were summarized in the tabulation.

The defendants, anticipating Chacon would blame any mistake on legal assistants, asserted as their first summary judgment ground that any miscalculation [720]*720of Chacon’s damages was irrelevant because the law firm “intentionally” filed suit in county court, believing the county court had concurrent jurisdiction with district court. The legal assistant’s misunderstanding of the county court’s jurisdictional limits, Andrews Distributing posited, would have led to filing the suit in county court regardless of knowing the full extent of Chacon’s injuries, and such a mistake was a mistake of law that section 16.064 was not intended to remedy.

As to the second summary judgment ground, the defendants argued that the record established as a matter of law that Chacon knew his damages exceeded $100,000 before suit was filed by pointing to the tabulation and the dates that the medical bills were invoiced, which show treatments and billing dates in 2003 and 2004.

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Bluebook (online)
295 S.W.3d 715, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 6345, 2009 WL 2476646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chacon-v-andrews-distributing-co-ltd-texapp-2009.