Hill & Hill Truck Line, Inc. v. Owens

514 S.W.2d 74, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 29, 1974
DocketNo. 7586
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 514 S.W.2d 74 (Hill & Hill Truck Line, Inc. v. Owens) 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
Hill & Hill Truck Line, Inc. v. Owens, 514 S.W.2d 74, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

STEPHENSON, Justice.

This is an action for damages for personal injuries received by plaintiff, James Edward Owens. Trial was by jury, and judgment was rendered for plaintiff upon the verdict. The parties will be referred to here as they were in the trial court.

The injuries sued for resulted from an unloading accident on January 6, 1971, at a construction site in Port Arthur, Texas. Plaintiff was part of a crew unloading H-beams from defendant, Hill & Hill Truck Line, Inc.’s truck. Plaintiff was an employee of Spence & Howe as a pile driver, with welding as his primary job, but with unloading as a part of his regular duties.

The jury findings are: that it was negligence for defendant’s driver to back the truck down the road with only one chain binding the load, which was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s damages; that at the time defendant’s driver backed up the truck with only one chain securing the load, he failed to maintain that management and control of the truck-tractor and trailer that would have been kept by a person of ordinary care under the same or similar circumstances, which was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s damages; that plaintiff’s damages are $500,000 considering physical pain and mental anguish, past and future, and loss of earnings in the past and loss of earning capacity in the future. The jury also found $8,100 past medical expenses and $5,000 future medical expenses.

One of the primary questions raised by defendant on this appeal is ex-cessiveness of the verdict. Much of the almost one thousand pages of the statement of facts is devoted to medical testimony. All of the evidence shows that plaintiff is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and that such condition was precipitated by the accident made the basis of this lawsuit. This case is unique in that we have not been cited, nor have we found a case in Texas in which a plaintiff recovered damages for this particular type of injury with the resultant loss of earnings and earning capacity.

In Collins v. Gladden, 466 S.W.2d 629 (Tex.Civ.App., Beaumont, 1971, error ref. [76]*76n. r. e.), this writer together with Associate Justice Keith, had occasion to write at length on the subject of appellate review as to excessiveness of judgments. The matters written there will not be repeated here, but are made a part of this opinion by-reference only.

The record before us shows the following. This accident occurred January 6, 1971, and this trial began September 4, 1973. The truck in question was loaded with sixteen 8 inch H-beams, 70 feet long, weighing 2,450 pounds each. While defendant’s driver was backing the truck, the hook on the chain broke loose, and the beams fell upon the plaintiff. Admittedly, the amount of physical damage was not as much as expected, as plaintiff received severe lacerations generally, compound fractures of the little and fourth fingers on the right side, contusion of the right shoulder and right hip and possible cracked ribs. The little finger was amputated later, but otherwise plaintiff has apparently fully recovered from the physical injuries here enumerated. However, as stated above, since the accident, plaintiff has suffered and, in all probability, will continue to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia.

Testimony was given in this case by: Dr. James R. Thomas, an M.D. and general surgeon; Dr. M. Fukuda, an M.D. specializing in orthopedics; Dr. R. J. Goodall, a neurological surgeon; Dr. Ramesh Par-ikh, a physician psychiatrist; Dr. P. W. Bailey, a psychiatrist; Ted Jolly, a vocational counselor and psychologist; Dr. Ex-ter F. Bell, Jr., a doctor of medicine and psychiatrist. Plaintiff was sent to this last doctor by counsel for defendant, and his testimony was typical of all the others.

Dr. Bell testified that when he examined plaintiff, plaintiff was a highly nervous tense person exhibiting facial twitches and jerks, and continuously grimacing with his mouth, jerking his head from side to side and wringing his hands. That plaintiff became more agitated as the interview progressed. He stated his opinion of plaintiff as follows:

“Schizophrenia, paranoid type, in partial remission manifested by facial tics and muscular twitching, loss of interest and apathy, schizoid withdrawal from human contact, fears and phobias and a morbid pre-occupation with his mental and physical condition, together with impotence and memory defect.
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“Mr. Owens is suffering from a major psychiatric illness which causes him to show withdrawal symptoms. That is, he now has a marked tendency to stay away from other people. His face jerks and twitches, and he has very little interest in what goes on around him. Memory loss is selfexplanatory. Impotence is the loss of sexual function.”

He also stated that his prognosis for plaintiff was poor, and, in his opinion in reasonable medical probability, plaintiff’s injuries were caused by this industrial accident.

The record shows that plaintiff went back to work as a welder, but because of his mental condition he could not perform such job. He received an injury on one attempt to work, was let go from another, and quit a third. At the time of the trial plaintiff was working at a fishing marina doing such jobs as sweeping out, pumping gas, cleaning windows, and cutting the grass, for which he was paid at the rate of $2 per hour. He now enjoys doing this kind of work. According to the medical testimony, plaintiff should not return to work as a welder but should continue to do quieter work, that plaintiff should not attempt hazardous work. As Dr. Bell put it: “[H]e is able to perform undemanding tasks.” All doctors asked, testified that plaintiff needed further medication and psychiatric treatment.

The evidence showed that from the date of the accident plaintiff had a life expectancy of 44.091 years and a work life expectancy of 35.391, which assumes retirement at 62. Plaintiff’s income, as a welder, averaged $10,812 for the last five years [77]*77before this incident. Calculating plaintiff’s income growth at the rate of 6.2 percent per annum, and deducting the amount of actual earnings, from the date of the accident to the date of the trial, plaintiff suffered a loss of $25,737.94. Calculating plaintiff’s loss of earning capacity in the future by using the same growth rate for the balance of his work life expectancy, less the amount of income he will probably make in his present condition less a discount for payment now, produces the major portion of the amount of money plaintiff is entitled to recover.

We have made a careful study of the record before us as to all of the elements of damages to be considered, together with a study of the amounts of verdicts in other reported cases, and we have concluded the verdict is excessive by $200,000.

Defendant contends it had completed its part of the job in transporting the H-beams from Houston to the job site and that this accident occurred during the unloading procedure which was Spence & Howe’s responsibility. Defendant concludes from that reasoning that it had “no duty” under the circumstances. We disagree.

It is true that each had the responsibility set forth above, that is, defendant to deliver the H-beams and Spence & Howe to unload them. However, we have concluded that the delivery had not been completed and defendant still had a “duty” to plaintiff to use ordinary care.

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514 S.W.2d 74, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-hill-truck-line-inc-v-owens-texapp-1974.