Farnsworth & Chambers Co. v. Hurst

338 S.W.2d 743, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2508
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 15, 1960
DocketNo. 13519
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 338 S.W.2d 743 (Farnsworth & Chambers Co. v. Hurst) 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
Farnsworth & Chambers Co. v. Hurst, 338 S.W.2d 743, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2508 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

WERLEIN, Justice.

This is a consolidated suit brought by J. W. Hurst, Sr., and six other plaintiffs against Farnsworth & Chambers Company, Inc., Nelson Trahan and Louvie Farmer, to recover damages growing out of a collision occurring in Chambers County, Texas, between a panel truck .in which the plaintiffs were riding and a dump truck driven by Trahan and owned .by Farmer. Traders & General Insurance Company intervened to' recover workmen’s compensation benefits' and medical expenses it had paid for and on' behalf of the plaintiffs. Upon' the jury verdict judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiffs' against said defendants, and an appropriate decree was made with reference to the intervention of Traders & General Insurance Company. Only Farnsworth & Chambers Company, Inc. has appealed.

Appellant asserts in its first seven Points, grouped together, that the trial court erred in overruling its motion for an instructed verdict because the undisputed evidence shows that Trahan was not within the course of his employment with appellant at the time of the collision in question, and because there is no evidence that appellant authorized or knowingly permitted the truck in question to be driven by Trahan in violation of Article 6687b, Sec. 36, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St., or that appellant employed Trahan as a commercial operator of a motor vehicle in violation of Sec. 37 of said Article, or was under any duty to ascertain whether Trahan had a valid operator’s license in connection with his driving and operating the truck in question, and further that the Court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto.

In deciding whether said Points should be sustained, this Court must determine whether there is any evidence of probative force in the record which warranted submission of the case to the jury. It is proper to consider only that evidence, if any, which, viewed in its most favorable light, supports the jury findings, disregarding all. evidence which would lead to a contrary result. Renfro Drug Co. v. Lewis, 1950, 149 Tex. 507, 235 S.W.2d 609, 23 A.L.R.2d 1114; Bolstad v. Egleson, Tex.Civ.App., 326 S.W.2d 506; Reese v. Davitte, Tex.Civ.App., 255 S.W.2d 1015, error dism. In applying the foregoing principles of law, we have concluded upon a careful and painstaking examination of the record, that the foregoing Points should be sustained.

Several months prior to the collision, Farmer, who owned two dump trucks, made a verbal agreement with Moon, the superintendent of appellant, to the effect that Farmer would furnish his trucks with drivers to the appellant for the purpose of hauling dirt on appellant’s highway construction job, the compensation being $3 per hour for each truck and driver while hauling dirt, out of which sum Farmer was to pay his drivers and service and repair the trucks. Approximately three weeks before the accident in question, Farmer employed Trahan to drive one of his trucks, agreeing to pay him one-third of what the unit, consisting of truck and driver, earned. Two or three days before the collision, Trahan, at Farmer’s direction, began driving Farmer’s Ford dump truck involved in the accident. Trahan and the truck hauled dirt for appellant the day before the accident and on the night of such day Trahan kept the truck at his home. At the time of the collision Tra-han was driving the truck on his way to the job site of appellant. The collision occurred some three to five miles from the job site at about 6:30 a. m. on April 14, 1956. At the time of the collision, the truck was not [745]*745carrying any dirt, tools or other property of appellant.

No question is raised as to the collision being caused by the negligence of Trahan. Appellant contends, however, that Trahan’s negligence is not imputable to it since he was not at the time of the accident acting for it within the course of any employment with appellant, or operating the truck by virtue of any authority or permission of appellant. We shall set out only the testimony considered pertinent and especially that relied upon by appellees as being favorable to the judgment and jury findings.

Farmer testified that his agreement, or arrangement with Farnsworth & Chambers was that he was to furnish them a truck and driver to haul dirt for $3 an hour, until they were through with the truck, and that Farns-worth & Chambers had supervision to do as they saw fit with it as long as they paid him for its use; that he leased the truck and driver as a unit and that appellant made it clear the truck had to be serviced and ready to do a full day’s work when it went out to the job; that he made his arrangements about leasing his trucks with Mr. Moon, appellant’s superintendent; that appellant was to pay $3 an hour while the truck was being used to haul dirt and out of the $3 he would have to pay the driver, and service the truck and keep it in repair; that the agreement was that for $3 an hour for actual hauling he would furnish the truck and driver out on the job ready to do a day’s hauling, and that was the extent of the agreement that he had.

His testimony is corroborated by that of Mr. Moon, who testified that he told Farmer, like he did the rest when he hired them, that appellant would pay $3 an hour for the truck and driver; that the time would start when he got the truck down to the pit under the crane for loading, and the pay would end when they dumped the last load in the evening on the road; that he had a man there that knocked them off; that the owner of the truck paid for gas and oil and servicing of the truck and repairs.

There is a good deal of testimony with respect to what was done under the oral contract of hiring and considerable speculative and opinion testimony as to what might have been done under the agreement but wasn’t actually done. Farmer testified that after he rented the truck and driver to Farnsworth & Chambers, he did not keep trying to direct and supervise the driver but turned that over to them, and that he left it to Farnsworth & Chambers after turning the truck over to them, to retain the truck and driver and use the unit on the dirt hauling job out there until such time as they decided they didn’t need the truck; that Farnsworth & Chambers kept time on the truck, and that he, Farmer, had been on the job on a few occasions to pick up his money, but that he did not supervise any of the drivers operating the trucks out on that job; that he turned over to appellant the right to tell the truck and driver where to go and what to do, and when to go, day or night and to direct Trahan’s and the truck’s movements; that the rental agreement was to continue until terminated either by appellant or by him, and that it had not been terminated at the time of the accident; that after turning the truck over to appellant, he didn’t exercise any control over Mr. Trahan and the truck other than to see that it was in condition to run, and that he felt appellant had the right to exercise control and supervision over the truck and driver; that he had to keep the truck and driver subject to their call whenever they wanted it.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Salinas v. General Motors Corp.
857 S.W.2d 944 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
338 S.W.2d 743, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2508, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farnsworth-chambers-co-v-hurst-texapp-1960.