Dennis Rayner and Joe Tex Xpress, Inc. v. Krista Dillon

501 S.W.3d 143, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7439, 2016 WL 3797893
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 13, 2016·No. 06-15-00009-CV·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by

Chief Justice Morriss

After years of frequent errors and gaps in his required driving logs and after days and weeks of a taxing driving schedule, the extent of which is subject to some question—-in large measure because of the unreliable driving logs—long-haul truck driver Dennis Rayner was driving his tractor-trailér 'rig east on Interstate Highway 30 through Sulphur Springs when he hit Krista Dillon’s automobile from the left rear as he changed from the center lane to the right lane. After initially refusing medical care at the accident scene, Dillon went to a local emergency room that evening, complaining of head, neck, and low-back pain. Eventually, Dillon underwent an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion at C3-4 and a posterolateral fusion and foraminotomy on L2-3 for traumatic facet disruption and nerve root compression. As a result, Dillon "sued Rayner and his employer, Joe Tex Xpress, Inc. (Joe Tex), for personal injury and was awarded judgment for actual damages in excess of $1 million1 and exemplary damages in the amounts of $2,000.00 against Rayner and $1,679,259.52 against Joe Tex.2

This appeal centers on the jury' findings of gross negligence. Rayner and Joe Tex argue that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the gross-negligence findings. Because we disagree, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

1. The Evidence

Rayner was hired by Joe Tex in 2007 as a long-haul truck driver, but at the time of the July 23, 2010, accident, he had over thirty years of long-haul experience. On the day of the accident, evidence suggests that Rayner left Van, Texas, at approximately 9:30 a.m. and drove to Wylie, where he unloaded his truck. After he unloaded in Wylie, Rayner drove to Dallas, where he was scheduled to pick up another load that was ultimately cancelled. Rayner was driving from Dallas to Joe Tex’s headquarters in Mount Vernon when the accident occurred. As he was traveling east on Interstate 30 through Sulphur Springs3 at approximately 1:30 p.m., Rayner changed lanes from the right-hand, or outside, lane to the left-hand, or inside, lane to pass a car that was in the outside lane. As he was returning to the outside lane, the front passenger portion of Rayner’s truck struck the rear driver’s side of Dillon’s Chevy Malibu, causing her car to spin into the median between the service road and the interstate. Rayner stated that Dillon’s car was in his “blind spot” and that he simply [147]*147did not see it. Rayner received a citation for changing lanes when it was unsafe to do so.

Dillon’s evidence of gross negligence included (1) proof of repeated incidents of log book falsification by Rayner, (2) a Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) audit in April 2010 that reflected: forty-eight safety-related -violations by Joe Tex drivers, thirty-four of which were critical, and which resulted .in the lowering of Joe Tex’s safety rating from “satisfactory” to “conditional” status, (3) proof that Joe Tex’s safety rating at the time of .the accident was “conditional,” (4) proof that, in the month before the accident, Rayner failed to submit thirteen driving logs required by the DOT and that this constituted thirteen violations, (5) proof that Ray-ner falsified his log books in the month and days preceding the accident, (6) proof that Rayner committed log'-book violations on the date of the accident, (7) Rayner’s admissions that he “sucked” at maintaining driving logs and that he has been “sloppy” with his log books for years, (8) proof that the federal regulations establishing maximum daily and weekly hours of service for long-distance drivers are designed to keep fatigued drivers from operating vehicles,4 (9) proof that fatigue plays a role in most tractor-trailer, or eighteen-wheeler, accidents, and (10) the admissions by Joe Seti-na, the president of Joe Tex, that (a) Joe Tex was fined by the DOT for producing falsified log books, (b) Rayner was the second worst perpetrator of log book violations among the Joe Tex drivers, (c) he knew before the accident that Rayner falsified his log books, (d) Rayner and Joe Tex make money when Rayner drives his truck and then falsifies his log book to indicate that he was off duty when he was driving, (e) driving in excess of the maximum hours established by federal regulations results in fatigue, which could lead to accidents in which people are catastrophically injured, (f) the policies and procedures of Joe Tex state that a driver’s employment will be terminated on commission of a fourth log book violation within thirty days of the last violation, and (g) while Rayner had committed more than four log book violations, his employment was not terminated because, according to Setina, “It’s my call. It’s my company. I can kind of do what I want.”

II. The Law

Rayner and Joe Tex contend that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury’s findings of gross negligence as to each of them. “Gross negligence” is statutorily defined as an act or omission:

(A) which when viewed objectively from the standpoint of the actor at the time of its occurrence involves an extreme degree of risk, considering the probability and magnitude of the .potential harm to others; and
(B)-of which the actor has actual, subjective awareness of the risk involved, but nevertheless proceeds with conscious indifference to the rights, safety, or welfare of others.

Tex. Civ. Prao. & Rem. Code Ann. § 41.001(11)(A), (B) (West Supp. 2015). Under the first, objective element, an “extreme risk” is not a remote possibility of injury or even a high probability of minor harm, but rather the likelihood of serious injury to the plaintiff. Mobil Oil Corp. v. Ellender, 968 S.W.2d 917, 921 (Tex.1998).

[148]*148Under the subjective element, “actual awareness means that the defendant knew about the peril, but its acts or omissions demonstrated that it did not care.” Id. “[AJwareness of an extreme risk does not require proof that the defendant anticipated the precise manner in which the injury would occur to identify to whom the injury would befall.” U-Haul Int’l, Inc. v. Waldrip, 380 S.W.3d 118, 139 (Tex.2012). Determining whether an act or omission involves peril requires “an examination of the events and circumstances from the viewpoint of the defendant at the time the events occurred, without viewing the matter in hindsight.” Transp. Ins. Co. v. Monel, 879 S.W.2d 10, 23 (Tex.1994), superseded by statute, Act of Jun. 2, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 204, § 13.02, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 847, 887, as recognized in Wal-drip, 380 S.W.3d at 140. Both elements of gross negligence must be proven by clear and convincing evidence, Waldrip, 380 S.W.3d at 138, and may be proven by circumstantial evidence. Boerjan v. Rodriguez, 436 S.W.3d 307, 311 (Tex.2014) (per curiam).

In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting a finding that must be proven by clear and convincing evidence, we must consider “all the evidence in the light most favorable to the finding to.determine whether a reasonable trier of fact could have formed a firm belief or conviction that its finding was true.” Diamond Shamrock Ref.

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Dennis Rayner and Joe Tex Xpress, Inc. v. Krista Dillon, 501 S.W.3d 143, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7439, 2016 WL 3797893 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

501 S.W.3d 143 (Dennis Rayner and Joe Tex Xpress, Inc. v. Krista Dillon) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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