Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Popnoe

140 S.W.2d 484
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 23, 1940
DocketNo. 3903
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 140 S.W.2d 484 (Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Popnoe) 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
Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Popnoe, 140 S.W.2d 484 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinions

PRICE, Chief Justice.

This suit was instituted in the -District Court of Crane County, Texas, by defendant in error Popnoe to set aside the award of the Industrial Accident Board. The parties for convenience will be referred to here by the designation they bore in the trial court. The case was submitted to a jury on special issues. Verdict was returned and judgment was entered thereon in the sum of $5,019.76 against plaintiff in error, defendant there, as the insurance carrier. Motion for a new trial was overruled and defendant duly perfected writ of error to this court.

By the verdict it was established that on January 24, 1938, plaintiff, an employee of the Morgan Construction Company, suffered accidental injury while acting in the course of his employment; that as a result. of such injury he suffered total permanent incapacity; such incapacity commenced on the 24th day of January, 1938. Further, that he .was entitled to a lump sum settlement and that $4.50 was a daily wage that would be fair alike to plaintiff and defendant.

The evidence established beyond dispute that at the time and' on the occasion alleged plaintiff suffered, in the manner alleged, an accidental injury.

There was a conflict ip, the testimony as to the extent and effect of such injury. Plaintiff’s pleading sets up numerous injuries, to the vertebrae of his spine, his head, hips and shoulders, and that as a result thereof he suffered total permanent incapacity. The evidence indisputably establishes that his shoulder blade was fractured.

Plaintiff was á truck driver- for the Morgan Construction Company and in the course of his employment drove up on a ramp and the truck fell from the ramp and turned over and thereby he was injured. He was immediately taken after the accident to the office of Dr. Cooper, where an X-ray disclosed the fracture of the shoulder blade.

Special issue No. 1, submitted to the jury, is as follows: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, that the plaintiff, T. C. Popnoe, sustained an accidental injury as alleged in his petition, on or about January 24, 1938?”

Complaint is made as to the form of this issue in substance as follows: (1) That it delegated to the jury a construction of plaintiff’s pleading, which was a matter of law for the court; (2) the same is too vague, indefinite and uncertain, in that it does not confine the jury to those particular injuries pleaded by plaintiff.

-Plaintiff unquestionably, upon the establishment of one or more of the accidental personal injuries alleged in his petition, had the legal right to have ,the extent, effect and duration thereof submitted to the jury. There might likewise be an issue as to whether or not the personal injury or injuries were sustained in the manner alleged by plaintiff. - If this was an issue under the facts it should have been submitted to the jury. Let us assume that an affirmative- answer might have been returned by the jury oh the theory of a personal injury other than one or more of the injuries alleged in the petition and considered whether or not defendant was thereby prejudiced.

Special issue No. 1 has been set out. No. 2 was as to whether plaintiff was an employee of the assured, and No. 3 as to whether, when the injury was sustained, plaintiff was acting in the course of his employment.

In our opinion issues one, two and three submit matters as to' which the evidence was undisputed. The findings are in accordance with the undisputed evidence. An error in the form of the submission of these issues was harmless.

Issues as to the personal injury should, of course, be, confined to the injury specifically pleaded by the plaintiff. Traders’ & General Insurance Co. v. Low, Tex.Civ.App., 74 S.W.2d 122. A more serious question would have arisen had defendant’s objection to issue No. 1 been addressed to special issue No; 4, submitting the result of the accidental personal injury. In No. 4 the result of any and all personal injuries received on January 24, 1938, might have been considered. If such complaint was made in the exceptions to issue No. 4 it is not briefed here.

[487]*487In a proceeding under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq.), seeking compensation for general injuries as distinguished from specific injury or injuries, one or more of the injuries alleged being established, an issue is found which in part conditions the right to compensation. This is an ultimate issue, or part at least of an ultimate issue. The effect and extent of the injuries are submitted in other issues and condition the amount of the compensation. It cannot be that where multiple personal injuries are alleged in the petition that each specific injury as to which the evidence raises an issue must be submitted separately. Such a submission is not made in the ordinary personal injury cases. There the character, nature and result of the personal injuries are submitted in issues as to damages. In the ordinary workmen’s compensation case where general injury is in question the result of the injury on the capacity to earn wages is the inquiry. The combined result of all of the injuries alleged and proved is the end sought. Texas Employers’ Ins. Co. v. Clack, Tex.Civ.App., 112 S.W.2d 526; Id., Tex.Com.App., 132 S.W.2d 399.

In connection with the submission of the issue as to the result of plaintiff’s injury as to the duration of the result of plaintiff’s injury the court defined the word “permanent” as follows: “Permanent, as used in this charge, is meant throughout the lifetime of the plaintiff, T. C. Popnoe.” Defendant objected to this definition for the reason same was too broad and did not take into consideration its defensive theory, an element of improvement. The issue as to permanency of the incapacity followed immediately after the issue as to total incapacity. It is conceded that the definition of total incapacity as given was correct. If we substitute the definition of total incapacity for the term, we think it is demonstrated that there was no injury to defendant. With the definition inserted the finding would be that for the remainder, of his life plaintiff was disqualified from performing the usual tasks of a workman in such a way as to enable him to procure and retain employment. This we think is all that is required to establish total permanent incapacity. Lloyds Casualty Co. of New York v. Grilliett, Tex.Civ.App., 64 S.W.2d 1005.

In our opinion the form of the issues submitted on behalf of the plaintiff properly placed the burden of proof. Houston & T. C. Ry. Co. v. Stevenson, Tex.Com.App., 29 S.W.2d 995.

By assignments of error Nos. 5 and 20 the definition given by the trial court of partial incapacity is assailed. The statement under the proposition does not show by reference to the transcript what objections were urged by defendant to this definition. In view of the fact that the defendant’s exceptions to the court’s charge compose about fifty pages of the transcript, we do not feel that we are required to read same to ascertain what objections were made to the charge. The assignments are overruled.

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140 S.W.2d 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-underwriters-exchange-v-popnoe-texapp-1940.