Crawford v. Detering Co.

237 S.W.2d 615, 150 Tex. 140, 1951 Tex. LEXIS 451
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 14, 1951
DocketA-2940
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 237 S.W.2d 615 (Crawford v. Detering Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crawford v. Detering Co., 237 S.W.2d 615, 150 Tex. 140, 1951 Tex. LEXIS 451 (Tex. 1951).

Opinions

[142]*142Mr. Justice Smith

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was filed in the District Court of Harris County by Harold E. Crawford against Herman E. Detering and Carl A. Detering, doing business as The Detering Company, to recover damages for the personal injuries alleged to have been received by Crawford as a result of a collision between a Chevrolet automobile driven by him and a truck owned by the Deterings and driven by James Debose.

The case was submitted to a jury in the district court on forty-five special issues, and, thereafter, the jury returned its verdict, which was duly received by the court. The trial court, after considering the answers of the jury to the special issues submitted, rendered judgment that plaintiff take nothing from said defendants.

In due time, the plaintiff filed his motion for new trial, alleging that while the jury was deliberating, and at a material time during its deliberations, the members of the jury were guilty of misconduct, in that at least one of the jurors related personal experiences and expert knowledge concerning a closely contested and disputed matter. The defendants filed an answer to the motion for new trial, and specially denied that any material misconduct prejudicial to the plaintiff’s cause resulted during the deliberations of the jury.

The issue having been thus joined, the trial court proceeded to hear evidence thereon and at the close of the testimony overruled the motion, stating in its order that “the law is with the defendants and against the plaintiff.” The trial court filed its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law on the issue of misconduct. The plaintiff appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals at Galveston, and that Court affirmed the judgment of the district court. 234 S.W. 2d 123.

The case is here on only one point of error, which reads as follows:

“The error of the Court of Civil Appeals in affirming the judgment of the trial court in refusing to hold the trial court erred in overruling petitioner’s motion for new trial in which it was alleged that the juror, Landes, while the jury was deliberating and discussing the answer that should be given to Special Issue No. 39, testified in the presence of all the jurors as to his expert knowledge and opinion concerning the length of time it would take a bus to stop on a highway traveling at [143]*143a certain rate of speed, which testimony was not before the jury from any source and was not knowledge to the public in general, and same constituted material misconduct calculated to and probably resulting in an improper verdict in this cause.”

Under Rule 327 of the Texas Rules of Practice and Procedure in Civil Actions, the plaintiff in this case was required to show, in order to obtain a new trial upon the grounds of jury misconduct that (a) the misconduct complained of in fact occurred, (b) it was material, and (c) it was calculated to and probably did result in harm to him.

Eleven of the jurors testified on the motion for new trial, and their testimony on the issue of jury misconduct is fairly reflected in the findings of fact filed by the trial court, which are as follows:

“1. The jury went out about 2:30 P.M., on January 30, 1950.
“2. They were dismissed that night about 10:00 o’clock P.M., and returned the next morning at 8:30 A.M.
“3. Shortly before noon on the 31st of January, 1950, the jury was attempting to answer Special Issue No. 39. At that time they had answered Special Issues Nos. 35, 36, 37 and 38 in the affirmative to the effect that from the preponderance of the evidence the defendants’ truck driver, immediately before the collision in question, turned his said truck into the center lane of the highway at a time when the plaintiff was in a position of peril, and that said truck driver discovered plaintiff in a position of peril and realized that plaintiff could not and in reasonable probability would not be able to extricate himself from such position of peril.
“4. The jurors discussed at some length Special Issue No. 39, as contained in the court’s charge, inquiring of the jury whether the driver of the defendant’s truck discovered and realized the plaintiff’s position of peril in time to have avoided the accident in question with the use of the means at hand, commensurate with his own safety and the safety of his vehicle, but were unable to agree.
“The jury had taken two votes on Special Issue No. 39 and stood nine to three in favor of answering the issue ‘No.’. Jurors C. E. Putnan, Herbert L. Hertz and H. C. Doan had voted that Special Issue No. 39 should be answered ‘Yes.’
“5. At this stage of their deliberation, and while the jurors were awaiting to go out to lunch, one or more of the jurors [144]*144turned to Mr. M. E. Landes, who was known to be a bus driver by occupation, and asked Mr. Landes how long it takes to stop a bus.
“6. Mr. Landes, in response to the inquiry, told about some tests which his Bus Company employer made to test mental reactions of prospective employees. He stated that two sulphur guns would be placed on the bumper of the bus and after it had attained a speed of more than 30 miles per hour, a passenger would pull a string and explode one of the guns, which would leave a mark on the pavement. The explosion would also be a signal for the bus driver to try to stop the bus. When an application of the brakes was made, the second gun would explode automatically, thus making another mark on the pavement. The distance between the marks on the pavement and the place where the bus would come to a stop would indicate the reaction time of the driver and also the distance it would take to stop the bus. Landis made the statement: ‘You would be surprised how far it takes a bus to stop.’ He also stated that a bus had air-brakes and can stop quicker than a truck, which has hydraulic brakes.
“7. The discussion by Mr. Landes took about three minutes, and shortly thereafter the jury went to lunch.
“8. Upon their return from lunch the jury, after some further discussion, voted again on Issue No. 39 and answered unanimously in the negative.”

Having read the testimony of the eleven jurors and the findings of fact set out above, we hold that such evidence and findings of fact conclusively show that the statement made by the juror, Landes, actually occurred before the jury answered Issue No. 39.

In order to determine the question of whether the statement of juror, Landes, constituted misconduct of a material nature and that probably injury resulted to plaintiff, we deem it necessary to look to the entire record as well as the evidence introduced on the motion for new trial.

Plaintiff testified that on February 10, 1949, he was driving a Chevrolet automobile on the Houston-Baytown Road; that it was a three-lane highway; that he was traveling in an easterly direction at a speed of around fifty-five miles per hour; that he kept his car in the south lane and while in said lane he could see another car ahead traveling in the same direction; that he gradually overtook this car and when he was about fifty feet behind it, he turned his car into the center lane, which was [145]

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Bluebook (online)
237 S.W.2d 615, 150 Tex. 140, 1951 Tex. LEXIS 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crawford-v-detering-co-tex-1951.