Industrial Fabricating Co. v. Christopher

220 S.W.2d 281, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1736
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 14, 1949
DocketNo. 12066
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 220 S.W.2d 281 (Industrial Fabricating Co. v. Christopher) 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
Industrial Fabricating Co. v. Christopher, 220 S.W.2d 281, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1736 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

CODY, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $76,750 against James H. Lightfoot, individually, and as (a) an individual doing ■business as the Industrial Fabricating Company and (b) as the Lightfoot Lumber Company, which judgment was awarded [283]*283.appellee on account of damages resulting from the collision between a truck belonging to appellant and an automobile which belonged to appellee and her deceased husband. Of the recovery so awarded, $50,000 thereof was on account of the death of ap-pellee’s husband; $25,000 thereof was on account of injuries suffered personally by •appellee and the remaining sum of $1750.00 was awarded on account of medical expenses, funeral expenses and damages to the automobile aforesaid. The collision occurred on the night of October 22, 1947, in Walker County. The case was submitted to the jury on 28 special issues. The present suit is one which has been consolidated.

Appellant predicates his appeal upon the following six (6) points:

1. The error of the Court in refusing to grant appellants’ motion for mistrial based on the conduct of appellee’s witness Ellisor, and several of the jurors.

2. The error of the Court in refusing to permit counsel for appellants to cross-examine and impeach the witness, Mrs. Lena Belle McDonald, after appellee had introduced testimony from her deposition into evidence.

3. The error of the Court in instructing the jury not to consider argument to the jury by counsel for appellants, as follows: '“Buster Brown is staring the penitentiary in the face. Here are some people, they are hurt and their attitude is going to have a lot to do with showing what transpired there. Every man on this jury knows that.”

4. The error of the Court in refusing to grant a new trial upon the ground that the verdict awarding Mrs. LaNelle Christopher $50,000 for the death of her husband is grossly excessive, is not supported by the evidence, and is so excessive as to show manifest sympathy, bias and prejudice on the part of the jury.

5. The error of the Court in refusing to grant a new trial upon the ground that the verdict awarding Mrs. LaNelle Christopher $25,000 for her personal injuries is excessive, is not supported by the evidence, and is so excessive as to show manifest sympathy, bias and prejudice on the part of the jury.

6.The error of the Court in refusing to submit to the jury appellants’ special requested Instruction No. 1 defining scope of employment.

We overrule appellant’s first point relating to misconduct of appellee’s witness El-lisor with several of the jurors. The facts of the misconduct in substance are these:

Ellisor is a truck driver who lives in Houston County out in the country from Crockett. Not long before the collision he and Buster Brown, the driver of appellant's truck, had some beer together. Thereafter they proceeded in their respective trucks towards Huntsville, Ellisor driving in the lead. When Ellisor heard the impact of the collision he knew what had happened instantly and turned back to the scene of the accident. The main contention of appellant was that Brown was not in the course of his employment at the time the collision occurred. Appellant himself brought out in the evidence that Brown was under indictment on account of the accident at the time of the trial. Appellant makes no contention that Brown was not shown, by the evidence at the trial, to have been clearly negligent.

Ellisor attended the trial, which was held in the city of Houston, which is appellant’s place of residence, as appellee’s witness. Houston is more than 100 miles from where Ellisor lives in Houston county. The trial opened Tuesday morning, June 29, 1948, and the court at once placed the witnesses under the rule and instructed them and the jurors not to talk to each other. On Wednesday, June 30, after Ellisor had testified, the Honorable Roy F. Campbell, in whose court the case was tried, observed, when he got off of the elevator, Ellisor giving a cigar to one of the jurors. The judge at once reprimanded Ellisor and the jurors present and then instructed the witnesses and the jurors again that there must be no talking between them.

On Thursday, July 1, at the mid-afternoon recess, Ellisor got the attorneys to excuse him from further attendance on the court on the grounds that he wanted to drive to his home. The court was not consulted. During the same recess, appellant’s counsel, while taking refreshments at the [284]*284cold drink and coffee stand on the first floor, observed Ellisor in conversation with two jurors who were' also at the drink stand and they heard Ellisor say that he would come back to meet one of the jurors at 5 :00 o’clock that afternoon. Appellant’s counsel reported this incident to- the court and when Ellisor returned about 5:00 o’clock, the court had him brought in to the courtroom and examined him about the matter. Of course, this examination was out of the presence of the jury’. In the course of the examination, Ellisor told the court that he did not know that the instructions not to .talk to the jurors applied to him after he had been excused by counsel. The following is taken from the court’s examination of Ellisor:

“A. . I thought I was excused and you had a recess at that time and I went downstairs, and the jurors were down there and they were drinking coffee and I drank a coke and they did not say anything to me, and .1 said ‘Gentlemen, I am dismissed from the case, I am going home,’ and one of them a juror said, T would like to see you before you leave,’ and I said ‘all right, I’ll be back here at approximately five o’clock,’ and that was all. As far as we discussing the case I did not care if it went in the lady’s favor or the boy’s favor or what — that gentlemen (appellant) over there has liability insurance on his truck.

“Q. Who informed you that he did, go ahead and tell me. A. All right, I will tell you, the insurance company came up and the prosecuting attorney came up to see me and wanted me to give an affidavit the way the accident occurred.

“Q. That is how you knew it. A. Yes, sir.

“Q. What was your purpose in coming back to see the juror at five o’clock. A. I knew his face and he wanted to see me, we might have been old friends, I don’t know.

“Q. You had been asking to be excused from the cáse so you could go home. A. Yes, sir.

“Q. You stayed from three to five to see the juror, is that right? A. I could not do anything else.

“Q. You could have gone home. A. That is right.”

After the coming in of the verdict, which was several days later, the court told the jurors, among other things, that it was with reluctance that he was going to question them; that he was not accusing any of them of dishonesty, but ‘that it was his duty to inquire into violation of his instructions against witnesses and jurors talking to each other and that “I have Ellisor out in the hall and to be frank I do not know what I am going to do with him. I should put him in jail, I do not know if I will or not, but he has flagrantly violated my orders after he was specifically instructed not to do that. I am going to ask you twelve men how many of you talked with the witness Ellisor.” Thereupon the court examined the jurors who reported that they had spoken to Ellisor.

W. O. Tidmon was the juror who told Ellisor at the coffee stand that he wanted to see him before he left.

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Bluebook (online)
220 S.W.2d 281, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/industrial-fabricating-co-v-christopher-texapp-1949.