Hutto v. Fantastic Homes, Inc.

390 S.W.2d 289
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 30, 1965
DocketNo. 16629
StatusPublished

This text of 390 S.W.2d 289 (Hutto v. Fantastic Homes, 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
Hutto v. Fantastic Homes, Inc., 390 S.W.2d 289 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

RENFRO, Justice.

The plaintiff, John Norman Hutto, brought suit against Frank B. Shoneneman, Fantastic Homes, Inc., and Southwestern Climatic Homes, Inc., for damages sustained while working as a carpenter in the construction of a home for one or all of the above named defendants.

From a judgment for defendants based on a jury verdict, plaintiff appealed.

We will refer to the corporate defendants as Fantastic and Climatic respectively. Plaintiff alleged that Shoneneman was president of both corporations and both were engaged in building residences in the City of Arlington.

No issues were submitted or requested, and no evidence was introduced, which would impose liability on defendants Fantastic or Shoneneman, hence judgment for said defendants was undoubtedly proper and therefore is affirmed.

In April of 1961, Climatic was constructing a number of houses on Skylark Street. George Newberry was field superintendent for Climatic.

Paul Thornton had a contract to “frame”, put on siding and raise the trusses on the house where plaintiff was injured.

[291]*291Plaintiff had a subcontract from Thornton under which he was to “frame the house up plate high”. Plaintiff engaged and had under his supervision two employees. One was his son R. W. and the other a man named Simmons.

The trusses, made of 2x4’s, were triangular shaped, and were pre-made by Climatic and hauled to the building site on a four-wheeler trailer pulled by a pickup truck.

When a given house was ready for trusses Thornton would notify Newberry. Climatic would deliver the trusses to the particular building site. That was done on the occasion in question.

We now take up plaintiff’s testimony. He testified: In April, 1961, he was a carpenter, 59 years of age. He contracted with Thornton to “frame that house up plate high”; plate high meant to “the bottom of the roof”. He was to be paid by Thornton. The accident occurred about the middle of the day, April 21st. While eating lunch he saw the truck drawing the truss-trailer drive up in front of the house and stop. He did not remember seeing the truck or truss-trailer again. After lunch he resumed work, had worked about 30 minutes and had “cut in about 4 window braces” when the truss-trailer turned over on him. The width between the house on which plaintiff was working and the adjacent house was ten feet. There was a three foot downward slope in the ten foot space, the house where plaintiff was working being on the low side. He had not seen anybody park the truss-trailer in the area between the houses. He had no recollection of seeing any one unloading the trusses.

In a deposition prior to trial plaintiff testified the truck driver drove around to the end of the house and stopped. (Apparently that location was the same as where it was standing when it turned over. No witness placed with exactitude the location where the plaintiff was working or the trailer was parked.)

In a deposition taken in a Workmen’s Compensation case growing out of the accident, plaintiff had testified: “‘Well, Paul called us up there and wanted us to unload some trusses off of a four-wheel trailer, and there were three of us, two would carry awhile and then one of us would swap up and help get them off. * * * I had carried * * * thirty of them off * * * I just walked around over there and bent down to pick up a rig axe or something and had my back towards them, and it just turned over on me.’ ” He did not deny giving the above testimony but testified he did not remember giving such. He testified he never carried any trusses. He denied that his contract included erection of the trusses, but admitted he always helped unload trusses at Thornton’s request.

He further testified that his memory had been faulty since the accident and he really did not know whether he remembered the details of the accident or had just heard people talk about it.

R. W. Hutto, son of plaintiff and plaintiff’s employee on the particular job, testified : The Climatic driver parked the truss-trailer between the two houses. Thornton told R. W. and Simmons to unload the trusses. When the driver first arrived he asked plaintiff where he wanted the trusses. “Daddy (plaintiff) said ‘I usually take them over the front of the house or the back of the house’ * * * the driver said ‘they usually take them from the side.’ ” R. W. heard no more conversation between plaintiff and the driver. R. W. and Simmons started unloading the trusses 20 or 30 minutes later. They started unloading from the high side. They had unloaded 10 trusses when it tipped over on his father. He did not see it turn over but heard the noise. When he looked his father was under the trailer and trusses.

According to Thornton plaintiff was in charge of the crew unloading the trusses and that he, Thornton, did not give plaintiff any instructions regarding the handling of [292]*292the trusses. The truss-trailer was 7 feet wide.

Newberry testified the two hciuses were exactly ten feet apart, with a two foot downgrade. Because of the width of the truck and the size of the open space the trailer necessarily hit the house on which plaintiff was working when it turned over. He did not see the accident; did see marks on the house; whatever method used to get the trusses on the house was O K with him; the trusses were 29 feet overall in length.

Other witnesses estimated the length of the trusses from 20 to 40 feet. They were loaded on the trailer point down, and, again the evidence varied, 25 to 40 were loaded on the trailer.

No complaint is made that the trailer was faulty in any respect. No contention is made that the trusses were improperly loaded on the trailer. That the trailer was parked on an incline was apparent to anyone who looked.

It was undisputed the trailer would not have turned over except for the unloading from the “high side” by plaintiff’s employees.

Plaintiff’s former employee Simmons did not testify.

The jury found in response to' issues Nos. 1, 2 and 3 that Climatic’s employees parked the truss-trailer on an incline between the two houses, that such act was negligence and a proximate cause.

Issue No. 4 was: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff Mr. Hutto did not see the trailer parked on an incline between the two houses under construction before it turned over?” The jury answered, “He did not see the trailer parked on an incline.”

In answer to issues Nos. 5, 6 and 7 the jury found Climatic’s employees failed to warn plaintiff the trailer was parked on an incline and such failure was negligence and a proximate cause.

Issues Nos. 8 through 11, conditioned on an affirmative answer to No. 4, were perilous position issues and not answered.

In answer to issues Nos. 12 and 13 the jury found that plaintiff was negligent in working between the trailer and the house and such negligence was a proximate cause of his injuries. The jury answered the damage issues with the sum of $30,000 for injuries and $1,193.55 for hospital and doctor’s bills.

The plaintiff contends the court erred in failing to predicate issues Nos. 12 and 13 on issues No. 1 through No. 8 and especially on issue No. 4, and in allowing special issues Nos. 12 and 13 to stand alone without a predicate issue as to duty; in failing to disregard the jury’s answers to special issues Nos. 12 and 13 where it had previously been established in special issue No.

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390 S.W.2d 289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutto-v-fantastic-homes-inc-texapp-1965.