Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Ovalle

470 S.W.2d 241, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2109
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 29, 1971
DocketNo. 630
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 470 S.W.2d 241 (Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Ovalle) 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
Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Ovalle, 470 S.W.2d 241, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2109 (Tex. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

OPINION

SHARPE, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment rendered after non-jury trial in a workmen’s compensation case. Appellee Ovalle sought total and permanent disability benefits resulting from an accident on October 21, 1968 which he alleged caused severe and disabling injuries to his right leg, back and body generally. The trial court awarded Ovalle disability benefits amounting to $3,711.32 for temporary total loss of use of his right leg and $90.00 for unpaid medical expenses.

In response to appellant’s request the trial court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Finding of fact number 5 reads as follows:

“As a result of the accidental inj,ury of October 21, 1968, Frank Ovalle sustained temporary total loss of use of his right leg which continued and will continue from October 21, 1968, for a period of one hundred fifteen (115) weeks and has sustained or will sustain no other disability, either temporary or permanent, or partial or total.”

On the basis of that finding the trial court concluded that Ovalle was entitled to recover $3,711.32 after allowing credits for payments previously made by appellant and considering interest and the appropriate discount for lump sum payment.

Appellant asserts three points of error in substance that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the finding and judgment of the trial court that Ovalle sustained a total loss of use of his right leg for 115 weeks following the injury of October 21, 1968.

Five witnesses testified on the trial of the case, three for appellee and two for appellant. Aside from his own testimony appellee offered that of Dr. George B. Barnes and that of one of his attorneys, the latter testimony not being material to disposition of this appeal. Appellant offered the testimony of Mr. Bill Carper and Mr. Joe Benson, former employers of ap-pellee.

Appellee, Frank Ovalle, testified in substance as follows: On October 21, 1968, he was about 19 years old and was employed by Sinton Electric Company as a laborer. On that date he got out of his truck to close a gate. The truck rolled backward and caught him between it and the gate, which was made of mesquite posts connected by wire. Ovalle was pushed against the barbed wire and his right knee and back were injured. He was brought to the Sinton Hospital and remained there about a week. He stayed off work for about two months but resumed his duties with Sinton Electric during January of 1969. He then performed generally the same kind of work he had done before. On occasions he would not dig ditches because his back or his knee would interrupt him, but he performed other work such as tamping dirt and sending materials up to linemen on poles. Occasionally he would miss work when it rained and sometimes his back would cause him to miss work. He earned the same wages as he had before the accident. Ovalle continued to work at Sinton Electric until June 1969 when he quit. He had gotten into a fight in which he hit a man with a chair and as a result his father thought he should leave town for a while. He was not fired from his job. He was not then married. [243]*243He proceeded to West Texas where he lived with his grandmother. While there he chopped cotton, working about ten hours a day, five days a week, and earning $40.00 to $50.00 a week. He returned to Sinton in October, 1969 and first went to Sinton Electric to seek employment because that was the kind of work he wanted and for which he thought he could apply. Sinton Electric had no work available for him. He has been back seeking his old job at Sinton Electric three or four times since his return from West Texas. He then went to work at a filling station for about two weeks, earning $55.00 a week. He was laid off because work was slow and he had been the last man hired, not because of any physical inability. Next he went to work at A&R Pipe, a company which made up pipe connections. He worked eight hours a day most of the time, five and sometimes six days a week and earned $1.70 an hour, which was more money than he had earned with Sinton Electric. He did this kind of work for about six months and, again was terminated because the work got scarce. He then went to Corpus Christi and worked for a commercial painting company — Roy Hunt — working as a laborer. He was paid $1.60 an hour which was about the same as he was earning with Sinton Electric. He left this job voluntarily when a job became available with Joe Benson in Sinton, Texas, where Ovalle lived. Benson was a tree trimmer and paid Ovalle $2.00 an hour. When Ovalle was not trimming trees he did roofing work and plumbing. Trimming trees would require him to work on the ground occasionally and sometimes he would climb trees and ladders. He performed all of the work Benson had asked him to do. The same was true with A&R Pipe — he did all of the work his foreman asked him to do, and he said the same was true with respect to Sinton Electric and Roy Hunt. He was fired from the job with Benson after Benson asked him to take a truck into town for repairs and Ovalle delayed in returning it. Ovalle testified there was trouble with the gears catching. His termination had nothing to do with any physical disability. Ovalle then went back to work for A&R Pipe again and worked for another three or four weeks earning $1.70 an hour. From his return to work in January, 1969 to the date of trial, on December 15, 1970, Ovalle was not out of work for any long period of time and when he was not working he was looking for another job. He got married sometime in 1970, the same year in which the case was tried and it wasn’t until then that he moved out of his father’s house. Concerning complaints, Ovalle testified that his knee had bothered him every two or three weeks and that when this occurred he would apply Ben-Gay ointment to it. It never caused him to quit a job and he was able to do his work most of the time. During the interim between the accident and the date of trial, he had taken a physical examination for the Army and had been rejected, but not because of his knee. Ovalle said he thought he weighed about 245 pounds and was about 5 feet, 11 inches tall. He said that he takes care of his own yard and makes all repairs around his home. He was not working at the time his deposition was taken in October of 1970, but said at that time that he wanted to get the deposition part of his lawsuit out of the way before he took another job, and he did go back to work with A&R Pipe Company following his deposition. On direct examination, Ovalle testified that when he went back to work for Sinton Electric in January of 1969 doing the same kind of work, his back and occasionally his knee would interrupt his work, and that they were painful, and that on occasions his knee locked on him. He also said that his back or his leg or both “bothered him” on each of the jobs at which he had worked since the accident. While he was working for A&R Pipe Company, his most recent job, his back and leg felt better. Ovalle also said that he had to work in order to support himself. Ovalle did not see a doctor from the time he went back to work for Sinton Electric in January, 1969 until November, 1970 after his deposition was taken in this lawsuit.

[244]*244Dr. George Barnes, an orthopedic specialist, testified in substance as follows: He examined Ovalle on one occasion — November 20, 1970, which was over two years after the accident and about 45 days prior to trial of the case. At that time the doctor took a history from Ovalle and conducted an orthopedic examination. The history given to Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
470 S.W.2d 241, 1971 Tex. App. LEXIS 2109, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardware-dealers-mutual-fire-insurance-co-v-ovalle-texapp-1971.