Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Christensen

223 S.W.2d 45, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2087
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1949
DocketNo. 12065
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 223 S.W.2d 45 (Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Christensen) 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
Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Christensen, 223 S.W.2d 45, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2087 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

CODY, Justice.

On April 24, 1946, while working as a welder in Alvin, Texas, a piece of steel flew into plaintiff’s right eye, resulting in the total loss of its use. On September 4, 1946, plaintiff brought a common law action to recover damages for the loss of the sight of his eye, alleging that its loss was proximately due to the negligence of his employers who, he alleged, were defendants Aaberg and Passmore. Said damage suit was numbered 30434 and on the docket of the district court of Brazoria County.

Thereafter plaintiff filed his claim for workmen’s compensation benefits with the Industrial Accident Board, and on April 2, 1947, by way of appealing from an award of said board, plaintiff filed his suit in the district court of Brazoria County against defendant Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, the file number of said compensation suit being No. 30670.- In answering said compensation suit, defendant, Hartford, contended that the court was without jurisdiction, alleging in that connection that plaintiff had failed to file a timely appeal from the action of 'the Industrial Accident Board; further defendant urged that, by filing a suit for common law damages, plaintiff had elected not to sue for compensation benefits.

Thereafter, in response to plaintiff’s motion so to do, and over the protest of defendants, the court consolidated causes Nos. 30434 and 30670. Thereafter plaintiff dismissed Passmore from his suit for common law damages.

On May 24, 1948, the court had a hearing without the assistance of a jury, on the issue of whether plaintiff was covered by the policy of workmen’s compensation insurance which was issued by defendant Plartford on January 20, 1946, to defendant Aaberg. There the court; found , that plaintiff was covered by said policy of insurance so issued to defendant Aaberg, doing business as Aaberg Truck and Tractor Company. Both defendant Hartford and plaintiff excepted to such holding.

The consolidated causes were set down for trial to -a jury on June 14, 1948. Prior to that date, plaintiff dismissed as to Pass-more. On June 14, 1948, defendant Hartford filed a trial amendment alleging in substance: That at the time of the injury, plaintiff was not an employee of Aaberg, doing business as Aaberg Truck and Tractor Company, or otherwise, but was an employee of Passmore, an independent contractor. Alternatively, defendant Hartford further alleged that plaintiff was an employee' of defendant Aaberg and Pass-more as 'partners; that in-the further alternative, plaintiff was the employee of defendant Aaberg and Passmore as joint enterprises. Defendant Hartford, as yet a further alternative, alleged that, if it should be found that plaintiff was an employee of defendant Aaberg, then, in such event, the Alvin welding shop was conducted -by defendant Aaberg as a separate and distinct business from the remainder of his business enterprises, and that the Alvin welding shop was not covered by defendant Hartford’s workmen’s compensation insurance policy.

Upon the filing .of , aforesaid trial amendment, defendant Aaberg, whose sole plead defense up until that time was a general denial, amended his answer and additionally plead that it was his intention to fully cover with workmen’s compensation insurance all of his employees at “Angle-ton and elsewhere in the State of Texas.” Aaberg further plead that, if plaintiff was found to be his employee, he was covered by said policy of workmen’s compensation insurance.

Based upon the jury’s findings, and the stipulation of the parties, and the court’s ruling at the hearing of May 14, 1948, the court rendered judgment that plaintiff recover $2,000.00 compensation benefits against defendant Hartford, and take nothing against defendant Aaberg. Both defendant Hartford and plaintiff have appealed.

[48]*48Defendant Hartford predicates its appeal upon six points, which present in substance :

1. That contrary to the court’s order of May 24, 1948, as modified on June 14, 1948, the policy of insurance did not cover the welding shop at Alvin. '

2. That the compensation suit was not filed within 20 days after notice of dissatisfaction with the Industrial Accident Board decision appealed from.

3. That plaintiff is barred from recovering workmen’s compensation .benefits by his election to proceed with the common law suit for damages.

4. That the court erred in consolidating causes Nos. 30434 and 30670.

5. In the alternative, that the court erred in refusing. to exclude defendant Aaberg from participation in the jury trial of June 14, 1948.

6. In the alternative, that the court had no jurisdiction because the order of March 13, of the Industrial Accident Board, purportedly appealed from, was an order of dismissal, and did not pass on the amount of compensation.

Plaintiff occupies the status of a cross-appellant to the court’s judgment that the welding shop at Alvin was ' covered by workmen’s compensation insurance, and here joins defendant Hartford in seeking to have the judgment that plaintiff recover nothing against defendant Aaberg reversed and the cause remanded for trial, against that defendant.

Appellant’s first point, urging that the evidence failed to show that the insurance policy covered the welding shop at Alvin, must be overruled. That is not to say that the evidence was sufficient either to show that the plaintiff was expressly .'covered by the policy of workmen’s compensation insurance, or that defendant Aaberg intended to have the policy cover plaintiff. But the evidence established as a matter of law that Aaberg in fact became a subscriber under the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and, as 'Was stated in Employers’ Indemnity Corporation v. Felter, Tex.Civ.App., 264 S.W. 137, 141 (reversed on another point):

“‘If an employer becomes a subscriber he becomes a subscriber for all purposes as to all branches of one business with respect to all those in his service under any contract of hire. All the terms of the act are framed upon the basis that the employer is either wholly within or altogether outside its operation. There is no suggestion or any phrase warranting the inference that there can be a divided or partial insurance.
“ ‘The practical administration of the act renders it highly desirable that a single rule of liability should apply throughout any single business. Otherwise difficult and troublesome questions often might arise as to liability or nonliability dependent upon classifications of employees and scope .of their duties. Litigation as to the line of demarcation between those protected by the act and those not entitled to its benefits would be almost inevitable. Instead of being simple, plain, and prompt in its operation, such division of insurance would promote complications, doubts, and delays.’ ”

Our supreme court held the same thing in much fewer words in refusing a writ in Barron v. Standard Acc. Ins. Co., 122 Tex. 179, 180, 53 S.W.2d 769, 770, and then went on to say: “Likewise, it is equally well settled that, where an employer conducts two separate and distinct kinds of business, each business involving different risks, pay rolls, and requiring a different premium for compensation insurance, he may elect to insure a class of employees in one business and not to insure a class of employees in the other business. $ *

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Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Christensen
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223 S.W.2d 45, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2087, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-accident-indemnity-co-v-christensen-texapp-1949.