Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. Continental Bus System, Inc.

274 S.W.2d 175, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2326
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 9, 1954
Docket12745
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 274 S.W.2d 175 (Hartford Fire Insurance Co. v. Continental Bus System, Inc.) 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 Fire Insurance Co. v. Continental Bus System, Inc., 274 S.W.2d 175, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2326 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

While the appellant’s statement of the nature and result below of this cause is thought to be needlessly in some respects extended, a full copy of it is hereto .attached as “Exhibit A”, and made a part hereof.

The appellee, in its answering brief, makes a reminder of the fact that the trial court, in such judgment, held that the appellant was entitled to assert its sub-, rogation claim, but had the burden of establishing the appellee’s negligence, and that, since appellant had- failed to even offer evidence of any such negligence, the trial court was left no alternative than to enter its judgment for the appellee.

On the appeal, this Court has become convinced that the trial court, contrary to the appellant’s .presentments, did not err in rendering the appealed ■ from judgment. That conclusion is thus clearly expressed in the appellee’s sole counterpoint to the appellant’s contentions, to wit: “The Trial Court correctly held that appellant’s notice to appellee of its property damage assignment and subrogation claim preserved its right to enforce such claim against appellee by proving appellee’s negligence; but did not render appellee automatically liable to appellant, simply because it settled the insured’s personal injury action and took a general release from him.” ■ .

*176 . It is thus undisputed that appellant insurance company, as the collision-carrier of Powledge, the man who owned the automobile, paid Powledge for the property damage to his automobile that had resulted from the, collision on the highway with the appellee bus — subject, of course, to the $50 deductible provision therein — and took an assignment from Powledge, as such owner, of all his right to claim any property damage thereto. The further detailed facts upon this feature are that Pow-ledge had filed his suit against the' appellee bus system for his claimed personal injuries resulting from the collision, and that this appellant insurance company, without having intervened in that suit for damages, had notified the appellee ,bus company of its assignment of Powledge’s property damage claim'; after having befen so notified, the 'appellee bus company settlfed Pow-ledge’s pérsonal injury action under a general' 'release from him, whereupon the personal injury 'suit had been settled.

In the situation thus 1 given and without undertaking to demonstrate the inapplicability of the authorities, appellant cites for its contention many cases, of which these are the leading ones: Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. James B. & Charles J. Stubbs, Tex.Civ.App., 166 S.W. 699, error refused; Seiter v. Marschall, 105 Tex. 205, 147 S.W. 226; Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co. v. Ginther, 96 Tex. 295, 72 S.W. 166; Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Vaughan, 16 Tex.Civ.App. 403, 40 S.W. 1065, error refused; Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Eldredge, 35 Tex.Civ.App. 467, 80 S.W. 556; F. H. Vahlsing, Inc., v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 108 S.W.2d 947, error refused; 26 C.J. 458; 46 C.J.S., Insurance, § 1209; Blashfield Cyc. Law & Practice, Vol. 6, p. 508.

On the contrary, appellant’s stated position seems to have been directly repudiated — upon comparable facts — by the Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals, in American General Insurance Co. v. Fort Worth Transit Co., 201 S.W.2d 869, as follows:. “Appellant American General Insurance-Company sued appellee, Fort Worth Traps-; it Company, Tarrant County, Texas, in the County Court at Law Number Two of said County, allegirig a cause of action for damages done to the automobile of one O. B. Swanson, resulting from a collision between said automobile and a bus of appel-lee. Said appellant claiming right of subrogation by reason of an insurance policy issued to said Swanson .containing a $50 deductible clause; that subsequent to the collision and damage in question, the appellee, with full knowledge of the existence of such insurance policy, its provisions pertaining to the $50 deductible clause and the right of subrogation, settled the claim with O, B. Swanson including the property damage to said automobile; leaving undis-posed the amount subrogated by O. B.’ Swanson to the appellant Insurance "Com-' pany; and . alleged further, ■ that appellee thereby admitted liability and became responsible to appellant for full amount of the automobile damage sustained by Swanson, in excess of the $50, which said' appellant was forced to pay said Swanson' in the sum of $483.90. Appellant alleged, in the alternative, that appellee was liable-upon its negligence, which was the proximate cause of the collision; and that it. became heir by subrogation.”

Appellant’s argument in its brief, to the. effect that the Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals has since changed its view from that quoted in the American General Insurance Co. v. Fort Worth Transit Co. case, supra, by its expression in the later' case by it of Fort Worth & Denver Ry. Co. v. Ferguson, 261 S.W.2d 874, writ refused, is a mistake; when the two opinions are placed side by side, they are found to have been based upon different states of fact.

In addition to those already referred to, appellant has cited these additional authorities: 54 A.L.R. 1456; Sprague v. Adams, 139 Wash. 510, 247 P. 960, 47 A.L.R. 533; 1 Amer.Jur. 494, par. 114; 1 C.J.S., Actions, § 104d (2), page 1334.

These additionally cited authorities of the appellant are thoroughly afiswered by these' additionally cited by the appellee, to wit: Underwriters at Lloyd’s Insurance Com *177 pany v. Vicksburg Traction Co., 106 Miss. 244, 63 So. 455, 51 L.R.A., N.S., 319; Fidelity & Guaranty Fire Corporation, Baltimore, v. Silver Fleet Motor Express, 242 Ala. 559, 7 So.2d 290; Travelers Indemnity Company v. Moore, 304 Ky. 456, 201 S.W.2d 7; General Exchange Insurance Corporation v. Young, Mo.App., 206 S.W.2d 683; Vasu v. Kohlers, Inc., 145 Ohio St. 321, 61 N.E.2d 707, 166 A.L.R. 855; Moultroup v. Gorham, 113 Vt. 317, 34 A.2d 96; Subscribers at Casualty Reciprocal Exchange, by Dodson, v. Kansas City Public Service Company, 230 Mo.App. 468, 9l S.W.2d 227.

Under the facts cited and the authorities referred to, this opinion in favor of the trial tourt’s 'judgment may not, it is thought, be more appropriately concluded than by quoting with approval this concluding paragraph of the brief-of the appellee-herein, to wit: “The right of an individual injured in an automobile accident to assert his cause of action for personal injuries, to have it controlled by his own lawyer, and to settle it as he wishes, cannot, as a matter of. good conscience, or common sense, be reduced or affected by the fact that an insurance company, under a contract obligation to do so, has paid him for the damage to his automobile. The Trial Court correctly so held.”

The judgment is, accordingly, affirmed.

Affirmed.

“Exhibit A

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274 S.W.2d 175, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-fire-insurance-co-v-continental-bus-system-inc-texapp-1954.