Fowler v. Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n

237 S.W.2d 373
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 9, 1951
Docket15229
StatusPublished
Cited by64 cases

This text of 237 S.W.2d 373 (Fowler v. Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n) 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
Fowler v. Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n, 237 S.W.2d 373 (Tex. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

McDONALD, Chief Justice.

Appellants Fowler and wife sued ap-pellee for workmen’s compensation because of injuries suffered by Mrs. Fowler, and in the alternative sued her employer for damages. Following motion by appellee for summary judgment. Rule 166-A, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the suit against the employer was severed from the compensation suit, and judgment was rendered in the compensation suit that appellants take nothing.

The motion for summary judgment was based primarily on the testimony of Mrs. Fowler, given in an oral deposition several months before the summary judgment proceeding, it being appellee’s contention that her testimony showed, as a matter of law, that she did not receive her injuries in the course of her employment.

Appellants’ first complaint is that the deposition shows that Mrs. Fowler did not clearly recollect some of the events surrounding the accident, and that testimony at a trial might clear up the uncertainties in her deposition testimony.

Section (f) of Rule 166-A provides in part: “Should it appear from the affidavits, of a party opposing the motion that he cannot for reasons stated present by affidavit facts essential to justify his opposition, the court may refuse the application for judgment or may order a. continuance to permit affidavits to be obtained or depositions to be taken or discovery to be had or may make such other order as is just.”

The record before us shows no such opposition by appellants as is provided for by the above quoted rule. They filed no affidavits or other proof, and made no-objection to the hearing. It is too late to suggest for the first time in their brief that they might have additional proof at a later trial. '

Appellants say that the court was. deprived of the .opportunity of observing *375 the -witnesses. The objection is untenable as to the testimony of Mrs. Fowler, because, for the purpose of passing on the motion for summary judgment, her testimony is to be taken as true.

Appellee relied also on three affidavits, two of them by employees of ap-pellee, one of them by an employee of Mrs. Fowler’s employer. Appellee paid compensation to Mrs. Fowler for several weeks after the accident. The three affidavits were to the effect that these payments were made under mistake as to the facts. Appellants say that the payments of compensation raised a presumption of liability for compensation, and that the affidavits of the employees in question should be treated as testimony of interested witnesses, which would raise only a jury ■question.

In the first place, if Mrs. Fowler’s deposition testimony shows as a matter of law .that she did not receive her injuries in the course of employment, the fact that- compensation was paid to her would ■not raise a jury issue as to course of employment, even though the payment of •compensation had been unexplained. We do not see how an implied admission of liability by appellee could override undisputed proof of non-liability. In the ■second place, the explanation provided by the three affidavits must be accépted as true, because the affidavits of the three employees were not controverted by any. •evidence, direct or circumstantial. It is .a proper case for the application of the rule thus stated in Cochran v. Wool "Growers Central Storage Co., 140 Tex. 184, 166 S.W.2d 904, 908: “It is the general rule that the testimony of an interested witness, such as a party to the suit, though not contradicted, does no more than raise a fact issue to be ' determined by the jury. But there is an •exception to this rule, which is that where the testimony of an interested witness is not contradicted by any othér witness, or attendant circumstances, and the Same is •clear, direct and positive, and free from contradiction, inaccuracies, and circumstances tending to cast suspicion thereon, It is taken as true, as á matter of "law.”

Appellants appear to suggest that a workmen’s compensation case is not a proper one for the rendition of a summary judgment. In most of such cases an issue of fact will arise- which will prevent the rendition of a summary judgment, but there is no reason why the remedy should not be available in a case like the present one, where there can be no recovery if the injury was not received in the course of employment. If it appears as a matter of law that the injury was not received in the course of employment, it would be a useless procedure to try out other issues in the case.

In determining whether or not Mrs. Fowler’s testimony raised a jury issue as to course of employment, we shall apply the same test we would apply to a motion by the insurance carrier for an instructed verdict, treating as true the evidence which is favorable to Mrs. Fowler, indulging in her favor all inferences that can reasonably be drawn from the evidence, and resolving all doubts against the insurance carrier. American Insurance Company v. Gentile Bros. Co., 5 Cir., 109 F.2d 732; Whitaker v. Coleman, 5 Cir., 115 F.2d 305; Minor v. Washington Terminal Co., Inc., 86 U.S.App.D.C. 71, 180 F.2d 10; Hoffman v. Partridge, 84 U.S.App.D.C. 224, 172 F.2d 275. The difficulty here lies, as in the case of instructed verdicts, not in stating the applicable tests, but in applying them to a given record.

The testimony, considered in the light most favorable to Mrs. Fowler, shows the following: She was employed as a saleslady in a large department store. Due .to a prior illness, she was' working only part time, from eleven o’clock in the morning until three in the afternoon. -On the day of the' accident she- quit work about the usual- time, went to the. rest room to wash some shoe dye from her hands, and then- went to another department in the' store to shop for some clothes for herself. Appellants make mention of the fact that she was shopping for clothes of the colors required to be worn by employees in the storé, but we attach no importance to such fact. She testified that *376 she bought most of her clothes in the so-called “store colors” so she could wear them in the store or elsewhere. She concluded her shopping in some fifteen or twenty minutes, and then -returned to. the rest room for the purpose of picking up a small comb she had left there during the noon hour. As she was about to enter the room another employee coming out of the room pushed the door outward, striking Mrs. Fowler, and causing the injuries complained of in the suit.

Under the holding in McKim v. Commercial Standard Ins. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 179 S.W.2d 357, writ refused, it must be said that Mrs. Fowler was not in the course of .her employment while she was engaged in the shopping tour in another part of the store. Appellants say that if there was a deviation from her employment while she was shopping, the deviation ended when she started to the rest room to pick up the comb preparatory to leaving the store.

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237 S.W.2d 373, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fowler-v-texas-employers-ins-assn-texapp-1951.