City of Houston v. Cash

483 S.W.2d 513, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2158
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 8, 1972
DocketNo. 15875
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 483 S.W.2d 513 (City of Houston v. Cash) 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
City of Houston v. Cash, 483 S.W.2d 513, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2158 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

BELL, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $20,000 in favor of Carol Ann Cash and for $3500 in favor of her father for medical expenses.

Carol Ann was injured when she fell from a 12-inch water pipe maintained by appellant across a drainage ditch. She was injured when she fell and hit jagged rocks and concrete that were submerged in the water below her.

In response to issues submitted the jury answered in substance as follows :

Issue One. The City knew or should have known the pipe and its immediate surrounding area were frequented and played in by children.

Issue Two. The City knew or should have known the pipe and its immediate surrounding area involved an unreasonable risk of serious bodily harm to children.

Issue Three. Carol Ann did not actually realize and appreciate the full nature and extent of the danger that she would fall from the pipe to the rocks and debris below.

Issue Four. The utility of eliminating the danger concerning the pipe was slight as compared to the possibility of injury resulting therefrom.

Issue Five. The City was negligent in failing to erect a preventative or safety device on the pipe.

Issue Six. Failed to find such failure was a proximate cause of the occurrence.

Issue Seven. Failed to find Carol Ann actually realized and fully appreciated the full nature and extent of the danger that she would fall from the pipe to the rocks and debris below.

Issue Nine. Failed to find Carol Ann was negligent in attempting to cross the pipe.

The City’s motion to disregard the jury’s answers to Issues 1, 2, 3 and 4 and render judgment in its favor was overruled. The trial court granted appellees’ motion to disregard the jury’s answer to Issue 6 and render judgment for appellees.

In determining whether the trial court’s action as to each motion was correct we must determine whether there was any evidence of probative force to support the jury’s answers to the issues attacked by the respective motions to disregard. In determining this we view only the evidence that is favorable to a particular answer and if it may be concluded from such evidentiary facts that reasonable minds could answer as did the jury, then there is evidence of probative force to support the answer and it must stand. If the reasonable mind could not make such answer, there is no evidence to support it and it, on proper motion, should be disregarded. This test is [515]*515so well established we need not cite authorities.

The accident happened the afternoon of December 3, 1967 when Carol Ann was just past her eleventh birthday. It occurred at a drainage ditch near the intersection of Chimney Rock Street and Kinglet Road in southwest Houston. The bridge crosses Kinglet. The area is residential in nature. Children cross the bridge over the ditch going to and from school. They also play in the area around where the accident happened. There is usually water in the ditch though its depth varies from time to time. There are rocks and debris in the water. The large rocks are sometimes submerged and cannot be seen. There seem to be no rocks or debris visible on the banks that would be dangerous if someone fell on them from the water pipe. On the south side of the bridge, and close to it, is the water pipe. It was aluminum in color. It was wrapped with some kind of material. It is about eight or nine feet above the water where the fall occurred. On either end near the top of the drainage ditch bank, it runs through a concrete slab. The pipe goes through the slabs near their top. The slabs slant gradually to the water’s edge. A person can easily get on the pipe from the top of the bank by sliding or walking on one of the slabs. There was no safety device of any kind to prevent one from getting on the pipe. In the record are various pictures and verbal descriptions of devices that could be used at relatively small expense, from which one could well conclude such devices would be effective to keep children such as Carol Ann from getting on the pipe. There was no warning of the dangerous conditions existing beneath the water and there is evidence they were not visible.

To the north of the bridge are a gas line not belonging to the City and a sewer line belonging to the City. The height of the sewer line is not shown but from pictures it would appear to be closer to the water than the water line. On each end of it is an “alligator guard.” Such guards are about five feet long. They consist of two pieces of metal that seem welded together at the top with steel saw-like teeth running longitudinally along the top. The two steel plates slant from the top and the bottom of each plate fits near the edge of the pipe on each side. These guards are placed longitudinally along the pipe. The pictures and testimony show that the guard, at one end, is placed so near a low concrete pier that a person such as Carol Ann can step from the pier to a point on the pipe in front of the guard toward the water. On the other side one such as Carol Ann who had walked the sewer pipe can, as she approaches the other guard easily jump to the bank ahead of' the guard.

Carol Ann testified she had seen other children playing on the pipes on other occasions. She had never been on the pipes before. She and her friend Sheila had walked on the sewer pipe a short while before her attempt to cross the water pipe. They had gotten on it by stepping from the pier to a point on the pipe just in front of the alligator guard. Sheila walked across the water pipe ahead of Carol Ann. Carol Ann did not try to walk on the water pipe. She straddled it and was scooting across it. She stated she sought to cross in this manner because she thought it would be an easier way to cross. She denied she crossed in this fashion because she was afraid of falling if she walked. She also denied she had any fear at all of falling from the pipe. In a deposition she had testified she had a fear of falling if she walked. She further testified she did not see the large rocks beneath the pipe or know of them. They were apparently submerged and hidden.

At a point above the water Carol Ann fell and severely injured herself on the submerged and hidden rocks.

As previously stated, there was evidence to show several other types of guards that could have been economically installed that would prevent a child such as Carol Ann [516]*516from gaining access to the pipe. Some had been in use by the City beginning as early as 1940. In fact it would appear from the evidence that an alligator guard four or five feet long, if properly placed, would be effective to prevent a child from getting on the water pipe and scooting across it. The evidence showed, however, that an alligator guard could not be placed on the water pipe because of the wrapping. The City alludes to certain testimony that it urges would support the conclusion that even if a proper safety device had been installed an adventuresome child might (and the City in its brief uses the word “might”) try to circumvent it and this would present another danger. Too, the City urges since the alligator guard was circumvented it might be concluded she would circumvent other safety devices.

Part of the testimony of some witnesses for the City is quoted in appellant’s brief which it contends would support a conclusion that even if a safety device were erected Carol Ann might have gotten around it.

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Bluebook (online)
483 S.W.2d 513, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-houston-v-cash-texapp-1972.