Denton v. Poole

478 S.W.2d 834, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2543
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 1972
DocketNo. 7329
StatusPublished

This text of 478 S.W.2d 834 (Denton v. Poole) 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
Denton v. Poole, 478 S.W.2d 834, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2543 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

KEITH, Justice.

Defendant appeals from a judgment rendered after a trial to a jury. Plaintiff, employed by Southern Pacific Railroad as a “railroad policeman,” saw defendant upon a private road within the railroad yards. Plaintiff was driving a truck which was towing a Cadillac automobile. The rear of the Cadillac was pulled up on the truck with only its front wheels on the pavement. Plaintiff noticed that the towed vehicle was dragging along on the pavement and spewing liquid thereon. Plaintiff stopped defendant who got out of his truck and went to the rear thereof. Plaintiff identified himself as “railroad police” and the two then inspected the roadway to determine if it had been damaged.

After some conversation, with a dispute as to exactly what was said at the time, plaintiff demanded that defendant exhibit his driver’s license but defendant declined to comply. More words followed and defendant broke for his truck, at which time plaintiff placed his hands upon defendant but the latter pulled loose, jumped into his truck, and started to leave the scene. Plaintiff, attempting to delay defendant’s departure, jumped upon the saddle tanks of the truck, reached for the keys thereto, and was injured when defendant placed the truck in motion.

The jury found that (1) defendant committed an assault with a motor vehicle,1 (2) which proximately caused injury to plaintiff; (3) that the assault was negligently committed; 2 (4) plaintiff’s damages were fixed at $2000. The jury failed to find that (5) defendant’s assault was in “heedless and reckless disregard to the rights of others,” and, the exemplary damage issue, contingently submitted, was not answered.

[836]*836The jury found in answer to number (8) that “in getting onto the truck of the defendant,” plaintiff was not negligent; (10) that in trying to take the key out of defendant’s truck, plaintiff was not guilty of negligence; and, (12) that in trying to “physically restrain Defendant from leaving the scene” of the accident, plaintiff was not negligent.

None of the foregoing issues, upon which defendant’s liability was predicated in the. judgment, is attacked on the appeal. Instead, defendant centers his attack upon Special Issues Nos. 15 and 16, reading as follows:

“Do you find . . . that the plaintiff, Al H. Poole, in climbing onto the defendant Harold Denton’s truck, had full knowledge of the danger that the defendant would try to drive the truck off?”

To which the jury answered: “We do.”

Special Issue No. 16, contingently submitted, inquired if plaintiff “voluntarily exposed himself to the known risk, if any, by climbing onto the truck.” This issue had a definition accompanying it reading:

“You are instructed that by the term, 'voluntarily exposed himself to the known risks’, the inquiry is whether a reasonably prudent person, in lawful possession of property under the same or similar circumstances and seeking to carry out the purposes of Sec. 4, Article 1142, quoted above, would have climbed onto the truck under the same or similar circumstances.” 3

Special Issue No. 16 was answered “We do,” but the next issue, inquiring if such act was negligence, was answered “We do not.” The proximate cause issue in the series was not answered.

In 1(he first point, defendant contends that it was error for the trial court to render judgment for the plaintiff “when the jury’s finding, fiilly supported by the evidence, established the defense of volenti non fit injuria,” while the second point complains of the refusal to grant defendant’s motion for peremptory instruction “because the undisputed evidence showed that the appellee had knowingly assumed the risk of injury when he jumped on appellant’s truck.”

Before entering into our discussion of the points, it is appropriate to note that plaintiff objected to the submission of Special Issues Nos. 15 and 16, saying that such issues “are defective as an attempted submission of the doctrine of volenti for whatever they may be attempting to submit, because no where is there any inquiry as to whether the plaintiff, Poole, fully appreciated the danger, if any, in climbing upon the truck of the defendant.”

In the quoted issues, defendant secured a finding that plaintiff had knowledge of the danger of climbing upon defendant’s truck; but plaintiff answers by asserting that defendant also was required to secure a finding that plaintiff appreciated the danger incident to his act. We agree. The question was laid to rest by Justice Greenhill in Halepeska v. Callihan Interests, Inc., 371 S.W.2d 368, 381 (Tex.Sup.1963). For the doctrine of volenti to be applicable, both elements must be established — knowledge and appreciation.'

Our review of the evidence does not convince us that the issue of appreciation was conclusively established by the evidence. Therefore, under the provisions of Rule 279, Rules of Civil Procedure, this independent defense was waived since no issue thereon was given or requested. Glens Falls Insurance Co. v. Peters, 386 S.W.2d 529, 531 (Tex.Sup.1965).

We agree with defendant that the doctrine of volenti bars a recovery [837]*837“without inquiry as to justification or proximate cause.” Halepeska-, supra (371 S.W.2d at p. 380). Thus, even if plaintiff was free of contributory negligence, the doctrine, if applicable and established, would bar a recovery. But, there is yet another reason, under the peculiar facts of this case, why the doctrine is inapplicable — that set out in American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law of Torts, § 496 E, (2d Ed.1965), reading as follows:

“(2) The plaintiff’s acceptance of a risk is not voluntary if the defendant’s tor-tious conduct has left him no reasonable alternative course of conduct in order to
“(b) exercise or protect a right or privilege of which the defendant has no right to deprive him.”

In Comment c, the rule is set out in this manner:

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478 S.W.2d 834, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denton-v-poole-texapp-1972.