Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America v. Williams

69 S.W.2d 519, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1435
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 15, 1934
DocketNo. 2503.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 69 S.W.2d 519 (Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America v. Williams) 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
Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America v. Williams, 69 S.W.2d 519, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1435 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

Appellee brought this suit in the district court of Jefferson county to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board made August 28, 1931, denying him compensation which he claimed by reason of injuries which he alleged he sustained on July 17, 1925, as an employee of the Gulf Refining Company at Port Arthur, Tex., which company carried compensation insurance with appellant. His petition contained the usual and necessary allegations in a suit of this nature. Appellant answered by general demurrer, several special exceptions, general denial, and specially pleaded the 6-month and 2-year statutes of limitation against appellee’s right to recover.

The demurrers and exceptions were overruled, and the case was tried to a jury upon thirty-eight special issues, upon their answers to which judgment was rendered in favor of appellee in a lump sum against appellant for 325 weeks at the rate of $11.67 per week, amounting (less 6 per cent, discount) to $3,567.25, with interest thereon at *521 the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from February 28, 1983, the date of the judgment. Motion for a new trial was overruled, and the appellant brings this appeal.

The case is before us on thirty-one propositions based upon forty assignments of error. We shall not discuss them seriatim, nor all of them, but only such as are necessary for a determination of the controlling questions.

Appellant’s first assignment complains of the court’s refusal to give its requested charge for an instructed verdict. This is based upon the contention that the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence is .against the findings of the jury that appel-lee’s condition is due to any accidental injuries received by him in the course of his employment.

The record discloses that on July 17, 1925, appellee was an employee of the- Gulf Refining Company at Port Arthur in Jefferson county, Tex.; that at said date said company was carrying compensation insurance with appellant, which insurance covered ap-pellee. On that date appellee was injured while engaged in the work of his master. This injury was duly reported to the Industrial Accident Board by the Gulf Refining Company. It was agreed by the parties that appellee was receiving $2.80 per day, and that he worked 7 days per week, and that his average weekly wage was $19.60. Upon notice of the injury, appellant acknowl- . edged liability and paid appellee the sum of $62.28, taking a “compensation settlement receipt,” reciting that the payment covered '45 days’ total disability, and that it was for “all injuries sustained” by appellee by reason of the injury of July 17, 1925, and that his injuries had terminated. This receipt was dated September 5, 1925. When he received his injury, appellee was sent to the Mary Gates Hospital in Port Arthur, where he remained for some 2 weeks, the while being treated by the refinery company’s doctor, when he was sent to his home. His injuries consisted of severe burns about his head, face, arms, and legs. After some 7 weeks (52 days), he was sufficiently recovered from his burns to be and was returned to work, but was not put at the same kind of work that he • performed before the injury. He was given lighter work, various kinds, until August of 1927, when he was made foreman of a negro crew, which place he held until February 2S, 1931, when he was discharged or let out. During this time he received slightly less pay per day than he was receiving at the time he was injured. Since being discharged, he has not worked at anything, and we think the evidence supports his contention that he has not been physically able to have done any kind of physical labor. On May 20, 1931, he filed notice of injury and claim for compensation with the Industrial Accident Board. On August 28, 1931, the board denied his claim for compensation. He duly gave notice that he would not abide the decision or ruling of the board, and filed this suit to set aside said award, resulting in the judgment above mentioned.

At the time appellee received his injuries he was working in what was called the “Rankin Chamber” of a “500 Type still”— “High Pressure Stills.” He was knocking down or stoking coke used in heating the stills. The entrance to the chamber of the still was small — just about large enough to admit a man’s body. The coke (used as burning fuel in the heating and refining process) to be stoked was overhead, and, when appellee punched or knocked it, a “big-pile” of the coke suddenly gave way and fell on him, striking him on the head and face and contacting with his hands and legs. Ap-pellee testified that “they had spud bars to punch that coke down from the side of the still, and they had coke up right over the door, and I was inside and I punched the spud bar up and broke it loose, and by it being foul with water and steam, that’s where it fell. I was standing up punching it over my head (illustrating), and when I put the spud bar up there, it broke loose, and all that fire and stuff come down and I couldn’t get loose.”

He further testified: .

“Q. Was there or not fire in it? A. Yes, sir, there was fire in it.
“Q-. What was it that broke loose? A. Coke, but the fire was smothered by being water from the tophead.
“Q. Just what quantities or amounts of coke? A. Well, that was a great big piece of coke; it was big as any barrel.
“Q. Were you struck anywhere about the body or head by that? A. Struck about the head. (Exhibited head.)
“Q. Do you know how you got out of the place? A. No; Jeff Franklin say he pulled me out. I don’t know how I got out.”

Franklin testified that he pulled appellee out of the chamber, put him down by the outside wall, and went after the “boss.” There is no doubt that appellee from some cause had lost the use of his right hand, *522 and had lost his left eye. Appellant strenuously insists that such loss was not caused .by the burns he received at the time in question, but in answer to special issue No. 10 the jury found that the bums were the “producing cause” of the injuries resulting in the incapacities. No good purpose could be served by our setting out the' voluminous evidence bearing upon this issue, hut we will say that, after carefully considering the record, we think the finding abundantly supported. The assignment is overruled.

Several assignments assert that, because of conflicts in the answers of the jury to special issues, no judgment should or could be rendered; that the answers were so inconsistent and contradictory as to destroy each other, and therefore no judgment could be based upon them.

In answering special issues 3 and 4, the jury found that appellee had suffered total incapacity to work, and that such incapacity was permanent. In answer to special issues 6, 7, and 8, they found that appel-lee had suffered 85 per cent, partial incapacity, and that such incapacity was permanent. It is contended that these findings are conflicting and destroy each other. We think the contention well taken. It is further contended that the finding in answer to issue 22 that, when appellee was discharged from the care of the physician treating him after his injury, he was suffering partial incapacity, and in ansrwer to issue 23

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69 S.W.2d 519, 1934 Tex. App. LEXIS 1435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indemnity-ins-co-of-north-america-v-williams-texapp-1934.