Gillette Motor Transport, Inc. v. Lucas

138 S.W.2d 887, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 178
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 7, 1940
DocketNo. 10944.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 138 S.W.2d 887 (Gillette Motor Transport, Inc. v. Lucas) 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
Gillette Motor Transport, Inc. v. Lucas, 138 S.W.2d 887, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 178 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

This statement, conceded by the appel-lee to be correct, is taken from appellant’s brief:

“Plaintiff filed this suit in the district court of Harris County, Texas, on August 14, 1937, against the defendant. For cause of action, plaintiff alleged that on October 27, 1936, at about 11 o’clock A. M., he was run into by a truck owned and operated by the defendant Gillette Motor Transport, Inc. That such collision was a proximate result of the negligence of the defendant. That on account of the injuries received by him in the collision he had been damaged in the sum of $25,000.00.
“Defendant answered by general demurrer, general denial, and by alleging various acts of negligence on the part of the plaintiff, each of which acts was alleged to be a proximate cause of the collision and damages to plaintiff; •
“The case was tried before a jury on special issues. The jury found, in response to the special issues submitted to them, that the driver of defendant’s truck, as he approached the place of the happening under inquiry, failed to keep a proper lookout for persons about the place. That such failure to keep a proper lookout was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries. That the driver of defendant’s truck, as he approached the place of the happening under inquiry, failed to sound his horn. That such failure was negligence, and that such negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries. That the driver of defendant’s truck, at the time and under the circumstances in evidence, did not operate said truck at an excessive rate of speed as he approached the place of the happening. That plaintiff, as he left the office of the defendant on the occasion under inquiry, did not fail to keep a proper lookout for motor vehicles approaching the place where the injury occurred. That, as plaintiff walked from the doorway on the occasion under inquiry, he did not do so at an excessive rate of speed. - That the collision in question was not the result .of an unavoidable accident.
“In answer to Special'Issue No. 15, the jury awarded plaintiff $10,000.00 in damages.
“On April 12, 1939, the court entered its order in all things overruling its motion for new trial, to which action the defendant then and there and in open court excepted and gave notice of appeal.”

There is no complaint over the amount of, nor the sufficiency of the evidence to support, the jury’s verdict, the appellant grounding its appeal herein solely upon contentions, the controlling ones of which are these:

(1) That the trial court erred in refusing to submit to the jury appellant’s requested special issues 7 to 12, inclusive;,

(2) That the court also erred in submitting its own special issue No. 9;

(3) That the court further erred in refusing its request to submit to the jury, in. the charge, an issue as to whether or not appellee’s alleged failure to keep a proper lookout for motor-vehicles approaching the place where the injury occurred was negligence.

After careful consideration of the able briefs and arguments submitted by both, sides, it is this court’s conclusion that the attacks so made by the appellant upon the manner, form, and substance, in which, the learned trial court submitted the cause —in the developed state of the pleadings and evidence — are not well taken; in final purport, these criticisms in the aggregate presented the view that the trial court’s theory of submission was erroneous, in that it not only failed to give appellant the advantage of its having pled, under its-charge of contributory negligence against the appellee, (1) that he walked into the path of the truck without keeping a proper lookout, (2) that he stepped from the door of the filling-station into the driveway without looking to his left for vehicles that might be approaching on such driveway, and- (3) that immediately prior to the collision he was walking from the doorway of the filling-station across the driveway without keeping a proper lookout for motor-vehicles driving along it; but also left a fatal hiatus in omitting to inquire — in connection with its own issue No. 9 — as to whether or not the failure to keep a look *889 out therein inquired about was negligence. It cites as supporting such criticisms these authorities:

Under (1): Dallas Ry. & Terminal Co. v. Fuchs, Tex.Civ.App., 52 S.W.2d 685; Fox v. Dallas Hotel Co., 111 Tex. 461, 240 S.W. 517; Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Gardner, Tex.Civ.App., 266 S.W. 809; Jones v. Hester, Tex.Civ.App., 16 S.W.2d 399; Northern Texas Traction Co. v. Weed, Tex.Com.App., 300 S.W. 41; S. Blickman, Inc., v. Chilton, Tex.Civ.App., 114 S.W.2d 646; 41 Tex.Jur. 1100.

Under (2): S. H. Kress & Co. v. Jennings, Tex.Civ.App., 64 S.W.2d 1074; Wonderful Workers of the World v. Winn, Tex.Civ.App., 31 S.W. 879; 41 Tex.Jur., 1100.

Under (3) : Clements v. Wright et ux., Tex.Civ.App., 47 S.W.2d 652; Fox v. Dallas Hotel Co., 111 Tex. 461, 240 S.W. 517; Gulf, C. & S. F. v. Pendery, Tex.Civ.App., 27 S.W. 213; Kasch v. Anton, Tex.Civ.App., 81 S.W.2d 1097; Lumbermen’s Reciprocal Ass’n v. Wilmoth, Tex.Com.App., 12 S.W.2d 972; McFaddin v. Hebert, 118 Tex. 314, 15 S.W.2d 213; Olivares v. San Antonio & A. P. R. Co., 37 Tex.Civ.App. 278, 84 S.W. 248; Simmonds v. St. Louis, B. & M. R. Co., 29 S.W.2d 989; Stinnett v. Paramount-Famous Lasky Corp. of N. Y., Tex.Com.App., 37 S.W.2d 145; Texas Power & Light Co. v. Culwell, Tex.Com.App., 34 S.W.2d 820.

This court thinks, on a sifting of the evidence especially, that appellant materially misconstrues its purport — that is, the case for the jury it presented as a whole — and thereby becomes technical in concluding that, taken in connection with its own specific pleading upon contributory negligence, it brought the cause for the jury under such holdings as its cited Fuchs, Fox, and Weed cases. Those determinations all seem plainly distinguishable from the situation here presented.

The facts were few and uncomplicated.

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138 S.W.2d 887, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gillette-motor-transport-inc-v-lucas-texapp-1940.