Howell v. Sanders

383 S.W.2d 874, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2334
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 22, 1964
DocketNo. 4288
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 383 S.W.2d 874 (Howell v. Sanders) 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
Howell v. Sanders, 383 S.W.2d 874, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2334 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinions

TIREY, Justice.

W. A. Howell filed this action against Mrs. LaFerne Sanders to recover damages for injuries which he alleged to have been sustained to his person and to his International one-half ton pickup truck. He went to trial on his original petition and his answer to defendant’s cross-action. He alleged substantially that on the 18th day of March, 1963, he was operating his truck on a street in Groesbeck, Texas, and that in the process of leaving a house located on Rusk Street known as Old Thornton Highway he stopped while still in the entrance of a driveway which gave ample room on the street for automobiles moving in opposite directions to pass in safety; that he was at a complete stop in the driveway when suddenly the automobile of defendant struck his truck from the rear, in which occurrence he received personal injuries and certain damages to his truck. He alleged that the collision resulted from the negligence of the defendant in one or more of eight different particulars. Among these were failing to maintain a proper lookout; failing to make proper application of her brakes, and failing to bring her car to a stop before it struck the rear of his truck; in failing to turn her car to the left in order to avoid striking the rear of his truck. In his 7th particular he alleged :

“In operating the 1960 Chevrolet automobile at a rate of speed in excess of that at which it would have been operated by a person of ordinary prudence in the exercise of ordinary care under the same or similar circumstances.”

Mrs. Sanders went to trial on her first amended original answer and cross-action which contained general and special denials to all the allegations in the plaintiff’s petition. In her cross-action she alleged that Howell was guilty of negligence in four particulars and that each was a proximate cause of the injuries and damages sustained by her; that plaintiff failed to keep a proper lookout; failed to yield the right-of-way, and that Howell started his vehicle from a standing and parked position without first determining that such movement could be made with safety, in violation of Art. 6701d, Sec. 67, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ. St.; and that Howell, after having started his car in reverse, failed to stop before colliding with plaintiff’s car. The jury found that Mrs. Sanders did not fail to keep a proper lookout; that the failure of Mrs. Sanders to apply her brakes was not negligence and was not a proximate cause of the accident, and that the failure of Mrs. Sanders to turn her automobile to the left immediately prior to the collision was not negligence and was not a proximate cause of the accident, and fixed her damages for personal injuries at $5,000.00, and medical expense of $64.00, and found the repair bill to her car to be $527.70, and further found that Mrs. Sanders had suffered the further loss of $272.30 for damages to heir' car and fixed her total damage at $5864.00'., The court overruled plaintiff’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto and granted judgment for Mrs. Sanders on the verdict and entered a take-nothing judgment against plaintiff Howell.

The Court overruled plaintiff’s amended motion for new trial and he perfected his appeal to this court.

Appellant’s Point one (1) is:

“The trial court erred in refusing to submit appellant’s requested special issues relating to appellee driving her automobile at an excessive rate of speed immediately prior to the collision in question.”

At the close of the evidence plaintiff presented his requested Issues Nos. 1 and 2 and, omitting the formal parts, they are z

“1. Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that at the-time and on the occasion in question, and immediately prior to the collision in question, LaFerne Sanders drove her 1960 Chevrolet automobile at a greater rate of [876]*876speed than a person of ordinary prudence would have driven it under the same or similar circumstances ?
Answer ‘she did’ or ‘she did not’.
Answer:-.
If you have answered the foregoing special issue ‘she did’ then you will answer the following special issue, otherwise you need not answer the following special issue.
“2. Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that ' the act of LaFeme Sanders in driving her automobile at an excessive rate of speed, if you have so found, was a proximate cause of the collision in question?
Answer ‘it was’ or ‘it was not’.
Answer: -”

Mrs. Sanders testified to the effect that the accident happened in the edge of the city limits of Groesbeck; that she was driving in a northerly direction on said street at about 10:30 A.M., and that she first saw appellant’s pickup “two blocks three or four houses up” from the point of the accident, and at that time she was driving 20 to 25 miles per hour; that she was looking in the direction in which she was driving, and that she did not see the plaintiff backing his truck into the street, and did not know that he was doing so until he hit her the first time “on the right fender”. * * * “And it bounced off and came back into me on the right door, * * That the second impact knocked her “cater-cornered” across the street. As we understand her testimony she did not apply her brakes or slow the speed of her car from the time she first saw plaintiff’s car sitting in the driveway until the time that the first impact occurred; nor did she pull her car to the left The street was unpaved and it was described as being rough. The witness Elias Howell testified to the effect that he heard Mrs. Sanders’ car coming down the street and that he saw the collision, and that the force of the impact picked the truck up so that both hind wheels cleared the ground, and that the impact pushed the truck further down the street some several feet. Howell testified to the effect that he looked both ways before starting his truck and did not see any car approaching.

In appellant’s brief we find the following státement:

“We feel that the foregoing enumerated testimony is sufficient to establish that there was some evidence from which the jury could have determined that Mrs. Sanders was driving at a greater rate of speed than she should have at the time the accident occurred. Presumably, therefore, the trial court only refused to grant this issue on the basis that it was included within one of the other issues that he had submitted.
“It is well settled that a party is entitled to the unconditional submission of every ground of recovery upon which he bases his claim or defense. In negligence cases this has been held to include the allegations relating to various acts of negligence, and it has just recently been held again that a global submission of various acts of negligence in one broad issue is improper.” Citing Pitts v. Barclay, Tex.Civ.App., 377 S.W.2d 750.

We think appellant’s contention is answered adversely to him by our Supreme Court in Kainer v. Walker, Tex., 377 S.W.2d 613. The opinion of the Supreme Court in the Kainer case is dealing with a situation that is very similar in vital respects to the case at bar, save and except that we are of the view that the evidence here is insufficient to tender an issue of excessive speed. See Sec. 166, Art.

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Bluebook (online)
383 S.W.2d 874, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howell-v-sanders-texapp-1964.