Cummings v. Jess Edwards, Inc.

445 S.W.2d 767, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2004
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 11, 1969
Docket437
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 445 S.W.2d 767 (Cummings v. Jess Edwards, Inc.) 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
Cummings v. Jess Edwards, Inc., 445 S.W.2d 767, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2004 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

SHARPE, Justice.

This appeal is from a take-nothing judgment rendered after jury trial in favor of Jess Edwards, Inc., appellee-defendant, *769 against Harvey Cummings, appellant-plaintiff.

Cummings sued Edwards for damages on account of personal injuries allegedly suffered when pipe was being unloaded from a trailer at Edwards’ place of business in Corpus Christi, Texas. The record reflects that on January 12, 1963 Cummings was an employee of T. E. Mercer Trucking Company of Houston, Texas, and the driver of a truck-trailer combination which transported a load of pipe from Houston to Corpus Christi, Texas. The pipe was of uniform size about 30 feet in length except two joints of about 18 feet each. Cummings arrived at the Edwards’ yard in Corpus Christi about 4:30 P.M., and five employees of Edwards (Frank Haywood, Mansfield Thompson, Tilman Walker, Jonah Rives and Lonnie Johnson) began unloading the pipe, with the aid of a gin truck. Cummings was injured at a time when he was under the pole trailer and a short joint of pipe fell from it and struck him.

The jury refused to find any primary negligence against Edwards but found three grounds of contributory negligence proximately causing the accident against Cummings. Those findings were in substance (1) that Cummings failed to tell any member of the Edwards crew that he was going under the load of pipe, (2) that Cummings failed to tell Frank Haywood that he was going under the load of pipe, and (3) that Cummings was negligent in crawling under the load of pipe with knowledge that there were short lengths of pipe in the load. The damage issues were answered in an aggregate amount of $10,000.00. Thus, there was no basis for rendition of judgment in favor of Cummings, and the verdict as returned required rendition of judgment for Edwards.

Appellant Cummings asserts seven points of error as grounds for a new trial. These fall into three general categories. Point one complains of exclusion of the alleged tape recording of a telephone conversation between appellant’s witness John Bentley and appellee’s witness Jonah Rives. Points two, three and four complain of the exclusion of testimony given by appellant’s witness Dr. Richard Austin, a psychologist. Points five, six and seven complain of errors concerning the inadvertent sending of an exhibit to the jury room which contained statements directed to the compensation insurance carrier for appellant’s employer and alleged jury misconduct in the discussion of insurance.

Appellant’s point one asserts that the trial court erred in excluding the actual recording of a telephone conversation between the appellant’s witness, John Bentley, and one Jonah Rives, a witness for appellee. Appellant’s basic position under this point is that prior to the trial Jonah Rives, a witness for appellee, had made a statement over the telephone to one John Bentley, an investigator for appellant, concerning the whereabouts of Ruby James, foreman of the Edwards pipe yard, which was in conflict with his testimony at the trial, and that Bentley had made a tape recording of the conversation which was admissible for the purpose of impeaching Rives.

The testimony of Jonah Rives, called as a witness for appellee on the trial of the case, relative to the point under consideration was as follows:

“Q Where was Ruby James at the time that the, at the very time that this man got hurt, where was Ruby James?
A Oh, he was in the pickup.”
⅜ ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ ⅜ sjc
“Q Did he ever go back up to the office after Mr. Cummings parked his truck, did Ruby ever go back up to the office after Mr. Cummings parked his truck, do you remember?
A No, sir, I don’t recall, I don’t remember.
Q You don’t recall what?
A Him going back up to the office, he could have.
*770 Q You don’t recall his doing that?
A No, sir.”

Thereafter, in response to questions propounded by counsel for appellant, Rives further testified as follows:

“Q Mr. Rives, whenever you talked with Mr. Bentley on the telephone, did you tell him that you didn’t know who was hooking up on front?
A I told him I wasn’t sure.
Q All right, you deny then that you told him that you did not know who was hooking up on front?
A Yes, sir, I said I wasn’t positive who was hooking on the front.
Q Did he ask you if there were any short joints on top of the thing?
A No, sir, he asked me where was the short joint.
Q Okay, then you deny, I take it, that he asked you, ‘Did he have any short joints on top of that thing,’ and you deny that you answered, ‘Yes, sir.’
A On top, yes, sir.
Q You deny that?
A Yes, sir, there wasn’t any on the top.
Q All right, did he ask you where Tillman was?
A Yes, sir.
■Q Did you tell him in answer to this •question, T see, okay, well listen, do you remember where Tillman was,’ and do you remember if your answer was, ‘No, sir, I don’t.’
A Well, where he was working?
Q No, where he was.
A At the time?
Q Of the accident.
A No, sir.
Q No, sir, what?
A I don’t remember saying that.
Q All right, sir, was Frank in the gin truck tied onto a pipe right before the short joint fell on Mr. Cummings?
A Was there a hook in the pipe?
Q Yes, sir.
A Yes, sir, we was unloading.
Q Well, then the answer was that you were tied into a pipe?
A Yes, sir.
Q Okay, and when Frank picked that one up, the short joint fell through, did it not, and hit Mr. Cummings on the hand ?
A Yes, sir, that’s the way it happened.
Q That’s the way it happened?
A Yes, sir.
Q And therefore right after the accident, there would be a pipe picked up off of the load?
A Well, we had picked up a number of pipes.
Q I mean, what caused the accident, didn’t you say it was the fact that a pipe was picked up and allowed, it allowed the short joint to fall through?

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Bluebook (online)
445 S.W.2d 767, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cummings-v-jess-edwards-inc-texapp-1969.