Durand v. Moore

879 S.W.2d 196, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1108, 1994 WL 178822
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 12, 1994
DocketB14-92-01160-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 879 S.W.2d 196 (Durand v. Moore) 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
Durand v. Moore, 879 S.W.2d 196, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1108, 1994 WL 178822 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

MAJORITY OPINION

WILLIAM E. JUNELL, Justice (Retired).

This is a respondeat superior case. The employer, Sherry John Durand, Jr., d/b/a Desiree, (“Durand”) was held liable for the acts of his employee, Craig Lewis. Lewis was a doorman at Durand’s nightclub when he assaulted a customer waiting to enter the club. Durand complains that Lewis was not acting in the course and scope of his employment when the assault occurred and that punitive damages were unjustified. We affirm in part, reverse in part.

Desiree is a Houston nightclub, owned and operated by Durand. On April 19, 1991, Craig Lewis, an employee of Durand, was assigned to the front door of the club. His job included checking IDs, enforcing the dress code, and coordinating the admission of customers into the club.

That night or early morning April 20, Michael Moore and Lawrence Ward went to the club. The club was filled to capacity, and both men waited in line for customers to leave. However, doorman Lewis did not admit customers into the club in waiting-line order. Instead, he selected several persons from the line behind Moore and Ward. Ward, and then Moore, left the line and complained to Lewis. Ward turned away and walked toward his car, but Moore remained and continued the discussion with Lewis. There was conflicting testimony [199]*199whether Moore and Ward were loud and abusive and whether Durand personally quieted them down just before the assault.

Without provocation, Lewis grabbed a tall cocktail glass filled with a drink and struck Moore on the side of the head shattering the glass. While Moore struggled to restrain Lewis and ward off further attack, Lewis struck Moore several more times with a flashlight. Ward returned and attempted to break up the struggle, but Lewis struck him in the face with the flashlight, breaking Ward’s nose. Ward retreated as Durand and others pulled Lewis and Moore apart.

Ward called the police. An ambulance arrived, and Moore and Ward received first-aid. Ward was later treated at a hospital. Moore declined treatment.

Moore sued Durand and Lewis. Lewis defaulted. After a bench trial, the court found Durand liable under respondeat superior. The court awarded Moore $2,500 in actual damages and $7,500 in punitives. Findings of fact and conclusions of law were requested and filed. Durand appeals. Lewis is not a party to the appeal.

I. Course & Scope of Employment

In points of error one and three, Durand complains that the evidence was legally insufficient to support the trial court’s finding that Lewis was acting within the course and scope of his employment for Durand at the time Lewis assaulted Moore.

In reviewing a no-evidence point, we consider only the evidence and inferences that tend to support the finding and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Stafford v. Stafford, 726 S.W.2d 14, 16 (Tex.1987). If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, the no evidence challenge fails. See id. ‘When the evidence offered to prove a vital fact is so weak as to do no more than create a mere surmise or suspicion of its existence, the evidence is no more than a scintilla and, in legal effect, is no evidence.” Kindred v. Con/Chem Inc., 650 S.W.2d 61, 68 (Tex.1983).

In general, to impose liability upon an employer for the tort of his employee under the doctrine of respondeat superior, the act of the employee must fall within the scope of the general authority of the employee in furtherance of the employer’s business and for the accomplishment of the object for which the employee was hired. Andrews v. Houston Lighting and Power, 820 S.W.2d 411, 413 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, writ denied). An employee’s tortious conduct will be found to be within the scope of employment when the tortious conduct is of the same general nature as that authorized or incidental to the conduct authorized. Smith v. M System Food Stores, 156 Tex. 484, 297 S.W.2d 112, 114 (1957). An employer will be held liable for the act of his employee, even if the act is contrary to express orders, if it is done within the general authority of the employee. J.V. Harrison Truck Lines v. Larson, 663 S.W.2d 37, 40 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1983, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

When an employee commits an assault, it is for the trier of fact to determine whether the employee ceased to act as an employee and acted instead upon his own responsibility. Houston Transit Co. v. Felder, 208 S.W.2d 880, 882 (Tex.1948). In Houston Transit, after an auto accident between a bus and car, the bus driver started an argument with the motorist while the bus driver was getting information from the motorist. The bus driver subsequently struck the motorist in the face with a money-change box. The Court refused to hold as a matter of law that the employee’s assault was not in the course and scope of his employment. Rather, the Court said that the issue was for the trier of fact. The Court reasoned that if an assault is so connected with and immediately grows out of another act of the employee, imputable to the employer, then both acts may be treated as being one indivisible tort. Id. at 881.

Subsequent to Felder, the Court clarified the law regarding the use of assaultive force by an employee:

It is not ordinarily within the scope of a servant’s authority to commit an assault on a third person.... And the cases in which liability has been imposed upon the master for assault by his servant are com[200]*200paratively few. Usually assault is the expression of personal animosity and is not for the purpose of carrying out the master’s business.

Texas & Pac. Ry. v. Hagenloh, 151 Tex. 191, 247 S.W.2d 236, 239 (1952).

[W]hen the servant turns aside, for however short a time, from the prosecution of the master’s work to engage in an affair wholly his own, he ceases to act for the master, and the responsibility for that which he does in pursuing his own business or pleasure is upon him alone.

Id. at 241, quoting Galveston, H. & S.A. Ry. v. Currie, 100 Tex. 136, 96 S.W. 1073, 1074 (1906).

However, the Hagenloh Court explained when an assault could be deemed within the course and scope of employment:

The nature of the employment may be such as necessarily to involve at times the use of force as where the employee’s duty is to guard the employer’s property and to protect it from trespassers so that the act of using force may be in furtherance of the employer’s business, making him liable even when greater force is used than is necessary.

Id. at 239.

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Bluebook (online)
879 S.W.2d 196, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1108, 1994 WL 178822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/durand-v-moore-texapp-1994.