Grocers Supply Co. v. Stuckey

152 S.W.2d 911, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 607
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 5, 1941·No. No. 11231·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinions

GRAVES, Justice.

This general statement, thought to be correct as such, after only immaterial alterations, is taken from the appellants’ brief:

“This is a suit brought by Monte C. Stuckey for damages for personal injuries allegedly received in an accident on October 20, 1939, on Lyons Avenue, in the City of Houston, Texas.
“Plaintiff alleged that he had parked his truck on the south side of Lyons Avenue up against the curb, and that, while he was inside of his truck, a truck of the defendant Grocers Supply Company, Inc., which was being driven in an easterly direction along Lyons Avenue by the defendant P. H. Cole, negligently collided with the rear end of the plaintiff’s truck, proximately causing the injuries and damages complained of by plaintiff.
“Upon a trial of the case the jury, in response to special issues, found negligence and proximate cause against appellants’ truck driver: (a) In driving the truck at a speed in excess of twenty miles per hour; (b) in driving the truck at a speed which was dangerous under the circumstances; (c) in failing to keep a proper lookout; (d) in failing to keep the truck under proper control; (e) in failing to reduce the speed of the truck just prior to the collision.
“The jury found that the collision was not the result of an unavoidable accident.
“Each of the ten defensive issues submitted by the defendants was answered unfavorably to the defendants.
“In answer to the damage issue, the jury found the sum of $20,700.
“Upon plaintiff’s motion for judgment, as well as the pleadings and evidence, the court rendered judgment against the defendants on October 12, 1940, for the sum of $20,700, with interest from that date at the rate of six per cent per annum.”

Inveighing on appeal against the determination so adverse to them below, appellants do so through 9 propositions of law based upon 35 assignments of error, which, in the aggregate, deal with these 4 features of the cause:

(1) Proposition No. 1 complains of the admission of certain evidence adduced by the appellee on cross-examination of appellants’ expert witness, through some 15 questions propounded by appellee to him, touching the appellee’s physical condition from a medical and scientific standpoint— on the main ground that the questions were hypothetical in character and assumed facts that not only had not been shown on this trial, but were, further, foreign to the material issues involved therein;

(2) Nos. 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9 challenge the answer to special issue No. 36 (as well as the intrinsic correctness of it), wherein the jury awarded the appellee the $20,700 for his injuries, as having been not only too high under the circumstances, but also so excessive in amount and so against the [913] great weight and preponderance of the testimony in its entirety as to have manifestly heen based upon sympathy, passion, or prejudice, hence was clearly wrong;

(3) The third and fourth assail the court’s action in having admitted the testimony of the appellee’s expert witness, Dr. Ed Cowart, in these two respects: (a) “It is possible that he (appellee) had some muscles and ligaments that were pulled and sprained. The X-rays don’t show that”; (b) “an injury to any arthritic joint may simply set up an irritation in that joint, like bending a rusty hinge, or something like that.”

(4) The remaining fifth one asserts the court’s action to have been prejudicial error, in permitting the appellee to show that, from October of 1929 to April of 1930, his average monthly earnings had been from $250 to $1,000 per month, through his connection with the “Personal Analysis Bureau”, selling a professional service for the effective use and development of personality in business; whereas, at the time of this accident on October 20 of 1939, he had merely been averaging about $58 per week for some 10 months immediately pri- or thereto out of his small business of jobbing candy, gum, and other miscellaneous items — such testimony having been calculated to mislead rather than aid the jury in properly arriving at the appellee’s damages from this accident.

Since this court is, at the outset, under bounden duty to determine whether or not appellants’ first proposition is entitled to consideration — over the appellee’s vigorous objection thereto- — despite its great length, it is thus set out in full:

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Grocers Supply Co. v. Stuckey, 152 S.W.2d 911, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 607 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

152 S.W.2d 911 (Grocers Supply Co. v. Stuckey) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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