Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Barrett

655 S.W.2d 333, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4831
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 29, 1983
Docket16607
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 655 S.W.2d 333 (Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Barrett) 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
Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Barrett, 655 S.W.2d 333, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4831 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

CADENA, Chief Justice.

In this worker’s compensation case, defendant, Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, appeals from a judgment, based on jury findings, awarding plaintiff, Sam Henry Barrett, compensation for total and permanent disability caused by an injury sustained by plaintiff during the course of his employment with defendant’s insured, Southwest Research Institute. On appeal defendant questions only the jury findings that plaintiff’s average daily wage was $32.00 and that a prior injury did not contribute to plaintiff’s present disability.

Defendant does not challenge the findings that plaintiff sustained a compensable injury in February, 1978, and that such injury was the producing cause of permanent and total disability. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Special issue number 5 asked the jury to find the “average daily wage which plaintiff earned during the days that he actually worked in the year preceding February, 1978,” the date of his injury. Defendant’s first four points challenge the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s finding that plaintiff’s aver *335 age daily wage during the period in question was $32.00.

Defendant’s first complaint is that the evidence was insufficient, legally and factually, to support a finding that plaintiff had worked at least 210 days during the year preceding his injury.

A legal insufficiency or “no evidence” point is disposed of by considering only the evidence, and the inferences which may rationally be drawn from such evidence, which support the jury finding. A factual sufficiency point, generally referred to as an “insufficient evidence” point, requires that we consider all of the evidence, including the evidence, and the inferences which may be drawn from the evidence, which would support a conclusion different from that drawn by the finder of fact. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951).

The parties agree that plaintiff sought recovery under § 1(1) of article 8309, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon 1967), which is applicable only if the claimant worked 210 days during the year immediately preceding the injury. In such a case, the claimants “average weekly wages” “shall consist of three hundred (300) times the average daily wage or salary which he shall have earned during the days that he actually worked in such year, divided by fifty-two (52).”

Claimant had worked for Southwest Research Institute for 17 years preceding the 1978 injury. He testified that, both before and after the 1978 injury he reported for work at 8 o’clock. In answer to the question by defendant’s counsel, “Is that your normal working time since you have been there?”, he answered, “That’s right, 9 until 5:00.” He testified that his work schedule had not changed since he “had been there.” He testified that he worked eight hours a day, “Monday through Friday,” and that his work schedule after the accident was the same as before the accident.

Plaintiff’s testimony was uncontradicted. Such testimony is “some evidence” and, in our opinion, “sufficient evidence”, to support the conclusion that during the year preceding his injury he worked at least 210 days.

Issue 5 did not ask the jury to make a finding concerning the number of days plaintiff had worked during the year preceding his injury and no issue requiring the jury to make such determination was submitted. Defendant apparently objected “to the submission of” issue 5 on the ground that there was no evidence to support a finding that plaintiff had worked at least 210 days during the preceding year. This objection seems to assume that the question was submitted and that there was no evidence to support the submission of an issue inquiring as to the number of days worked. The objection was not sufficient to distinctly point out the failure of the trial court to submit an issue concerning the number of days actually worked by plaintiff. In the absence of such objection, we must presume that the trial court impliedly found that plaintiff had worked at least 210 days during the year preceding his injury, since there was legally and factually sufficient evidence to support such finding. Rule 279, Tex.R.Civ.P. (1981); Transport Insurance Corp. v. Mabra, 487 S.W.2d 704, 708 (Tex.1972). In any event, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the trial court ever ruled on defendant’s objection. See Rules 272, 276.

Defendant argues that there was no evidence or, in the alternative, insufficient evidence, that plaintiff earned a “daily wage.” The contention is that the evidence only establishes that plaintiff was paid by the hour and that, therefore, his earnings or wages bore no relation to the number of days worked, but only to the number of hours worked. In advancing this theory, defendant relies on Texas Employers’ Insurance Association v. Clack, 134 Tex. 151, 132 S.W.2d 399 (1939); Texas Employers’ Insurance Association v. Bewley, 560 S.W.2d 147 (Tex.Civ.App. — Houston [1st Dist.] 1977, no writ); and Traders & General Insurance Co. v. Turner, 149 S.W.2d 593 (Tex.Civ.App. — Fort Worth 1943, no writ). Those cases are not controlling here.

*336 In Clack plaintiff did not contend that he was a daily wage worker. He was paid $122.00 a month, and the evidence showed that he worked five days one week and four days the next, and that he was paid in semi-monthly installments. 132 S.W.2d at 400. Under such a schedule, the number of days worked by plaintiff was not the same each month. Since he was paid the same monthly salary irrespective of the number of days worked during the month, the conclusion that he was not paid on a daily basis is sound. While Clack does point out that § 1(1) is applicable only where the employee is paid a daily wage, 132 S.W.2d at 401, it does not support the conclusion that a person whose wages are paid on the basis of an hourly rate does not earn a daily wage.

Similarly, Texas Employers’ Association v. Bewley, supra, does not hold that a claimant who is paid at a stipulated rate per hour does not earn a “daily wage.” In that case there was no evidence that plaintiff was paid any particular sum as wages and no evidence that he worked as many as eight hours a day on any particular day, or as many as 40 hours a week during any particular week. Consequently, there was no evidence from which the jury could compute the plaintiffs average weekly wage under Section (1).

In Traders & General Insurance Co. v. Turner, supra, the court assumed that no contention was made that the applicable wage rate could be calculated under § 1(1). 149 S.W.2d at 596. Therefore, the court had no occasion to determine whether plaintiff worked at all times during the year preceding his injury for the same employer.

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Bluebook (online)
655 S.W.2d 333, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/charter-oak-fire-insurance-co-v-barrett-texapp-1983.