Gilcrease v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.

252 S.W.2d 715, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 11, 1952
DocketNo. 4858
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 252 S.W.2d 715 (Gilcrease v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.) 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
Gilcrease v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 252 S.W.2d 715, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790 (Tex. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

McGILL, Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case. Appellant was the plaintiff-claimant, Richardson & Bass the employer, and ap-pellee the defendant insurance carrier.

Trial was to a jury, and on answers to special issues the court rendered judgment that plaintiff recover nothing and that defendant recover of plaintiff its costs.

One of appellant’s points is that the findings of the jury are in direct conflict with each other and that some of them are without evidence to support them.

First as to the asserted conflict: The injury for which plaintiff claimed compensation was alleged to have resulted from an infection in his leg caused by some' bear grass or mesquite thorns, which he stuck in his leg while he was assisting in carrying a joint of pipe to repair a gas line on the lease of Richardson & Bass on August 28, 1944. He alleged that at the time of the injury he was working in the course of his employment for Richardson & Bass as a roustabout on their lease some seven or eight miles northeast of Kermit, Texas.

The jury found (1) That plaintiff was an employee of Richardson & Bass on.August 28, 1944; (2) that on or about August 28, 1944, plaintiff sustained án injury to his legs by thorns or particles from bear grass, and/or mesquite; (3) that such injury was an accidental injury; (4) that they did not find that plaintiff sustained such injury in the course of his employment for Richardson & Bass; (5) that they did not find that the injuries had to do with or originated in the work, business or trade of Richardson & Bass; (6) that plaintiff suffered physical incapacity to labor or work “arising from the injury to his legs”; and (7) that they did not find that the injury sustained by plaintiff was a producing cause of such incapacity to labor or work.

If finding 7 had been an affirmative finding that the injury sustained by plaintiff to his legs on August 28, 1944, was not a producing cause of such incapacity to labor or work, we think there can be no question but that such finding would conflict with finding 6. It may be that since [717]*717finding 7 was negative rather than affirmative there is no conflict. However, although, finding 7 is negative we think that in substance it does conflict with'finding 6. 'We do not perceive how the' incapacity could have arisen from the injury to plaintiff’s legs and the injury to his legs not have been a producing cause of such incapacity. Therefore, in substance findings 6 and 7 are irreconcilable, and destroy each other, but they do not destroy other findings not in conflict with them and vitiate the verdict so that it cannot form the basis of the judgment if such other findings are sufficient to support the judgment. In such a situation the conflicting findings become immaterial. The Rule is thus stated in 41 Texas Jurisprudence, p. 1230, Section 343:

“It is not true in all cases of conflicting answers by a jury that a valid judgment may not be entered upon a verdict as a whole, but the conflict or contradiction in the answers must be with reference to material and controlling issues in the case, and, if the answers as a whole be such as to leave without contradiction all necessary material and controlling issues found by the jury in favor of one of the parties litigant, judgment may properly be entered upon the verdict, notwithstanding conflicts or contradictions as to issues not controlling, or immaterial.”

citing Miller’s Indemnity Underwriters v. Schrieber, Tex.Civ.App., 240 S.W. 963, wr. refused. Stated another way, the existence of an irreconcilable conflict between certain findings is immaterial if there remains at least one finding supporting the judgment which is not in conflict with any other. Aranda v. Texas & N. O. R. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 140 S.W.2d 236, loc.cit. 240 (12), and authorities there cited, (writ dismissed, judgment correct.); Railway Express Agency v. Robinson, Tex.Civ.App., 162 S.W.2d 984, w.r.w.m.; Porter v. Polis, Tex.Civ.App., 169 S.W.2d 216, w.r.w.m. In other words, tfhe conflicting findings do not destroy each other except to the extent of the conflict. Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. McLaughlin, 134 Tex. 613, 135 S.W.2d 955, locxit. 958(9). Clearly, neither finding 6 nor 7'conflicts with any of the other findings. In his brief appellant states that findings 1, 2, 3 and 6 directly conflict with findings 4,- 5 and 7, and particularly -finding 6 conflicts with findings 4 and 5. He does not point out -the' conflict, -but argues that the evidence was insufficient to support findings 4 and 5. We see no possible, conflict between findings 4 and 5 and finding 6, nor any other findings except 6 and 7.

In order for plaintiff to recover it was necessary that he establish that he sustained the injury for which he claimed' compensation in the course of his employment with .Richardson '& Bass, or in the' words of the statute “that such injury had to do with or originated in the work, business or trade” of Richardson & Bass. By their answers to Special issues 4 and 5 the jury refused to malee either of these findings. Therefore, the verdict was sufficient to support the judgment rendered for defendant if findings 4 and 5 are supported by sufficient evidence. We think they are. Plaintiff testified that he was injured by the thorns at about nine o’clock on the morning of August 28, 1944-, while he was helping to carry a pipe to fix-a gas leak. Of Course if these were the facts plaintiff was then acting within the course of his employment. Plaintiff also testified that during the lunch hour of the day he was injured by the thorns he pulled the thorns out of his leg in the presence of two members of the crew -he was working with. Bugs Smith and Cap Lippincott, and talked to them about the accident. Each of these parties testified that he had no recollection of this occurrence. Cass Wills, the straw boss who plaintiff testified was helping him carry the pipe at the time of the injury, testified that lie had no recollection of such injury or of plaintiff’s having' told him about it. While the jury found (2) that plaintiff sustained an injury to his legs on or about August 28, 1944, by thorns, they refused to find (4) that he sustained the injury on August 28 in the course of 'his employment, or (5) that it had to do with- or originated in the work of Richardson & Bass. We have already said there is no conflict in these findings. We hold the evi[718]*718dence was sufficient to warrant the jury’s answers to special issues 4 and 5.

O. C. Stiles testified for defendant that he was production foreman for Richardson & Bass; that he had known plaintiff since around September 1944; that plaintiff had worked for Richardson & Bass twenty-three days; that one evening- after working hours witness was returning home from town and plaintiff was on the road going to the house where he lived and witness picked him up in his car and gave him a ride about seven miles north of town and then let him out on the road that led to the house where he was living; that a road ran two miles east and one mile north to this house;

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Bluebook (online)
252 S.W.2d 715, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilcrease-v-hartford-accident-indemnity-co-texapp-1952.