Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co. v. Brown

172 S.W.2d 174, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 391
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 15, 1943
DocketNo. 4129
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 172 S.W.2d 174 (Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co. v. Brown) 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
Insurors Indemnity & Ins. Co. v. Brown, 172 S.W.2d 174, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 391 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

COMBS, Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case. On appropriate jury findings the trial court entered judgment in favor of the appellee as for total, permanent disability.

By several propositions, appellant contends that the suit to set aside the judgment of the Industrial Accident Board was filed too late to give the trial court jurisdiction. Appellee was injured July 22, 1941, in Jefferson County. He gave timely notice of his injury and in due time filed his claim for compensation. Being dissatisfied with the award made him by the Board he gave notice of dissatisfaction and within due time thereafter he filed suit in the 60th District Court of Jefferson County on November 8, 1941, to set aside the award. However, in his original petition he did not allege that his injury occurred in Jefferson County, or even that it occurred in the State of Texas. Defendant filed a plea to the jurisdiction. Thereafter, on February 4, 1942, plaintiff filed an amended petition wherein he alleged for the first time that the accident occurred in Jefferson County, Texas. Defendant filed a new plea to the jurisdiction, contending that since the amended petition was filed long after the time allowed by statute for the filing of the suit the suit came too late.

Appellant bases its contention on the holding of' our Supreme Court in Mingus v. Wadley, 115 Tex. 551, 285 S.W. 1084, 1089, wherein the statutory requirement that a compensation suit be brought in the county where the accident occurred was held to be jurisdictional and mandatory. Chief Justice Cureton stated in the course of the opinion that “Jurisdictional allegations are an integral and necessary part of the case, without the statement of which there is no cause of action.” So, it is reasoned by counsel in the present case that plaintiff did not invoke the jurisdiction of the court by his first petition, and that he began his suit only when he filed his amended petition wherein he alleged the “essential jurisdictional fact” that the accident occurred in the county of suit, and since this was long after the time allowed by statute for filing the suit the court was without jurisdiction.

[176]*176The contention is not tenable. Since the decision of Mingus v. Wadley two things have happened which render the holding on this point no longer applicable. In 1932 the Legislature amended the statute so that thereafter compensation suits filed in the wrong county would simply be transferred to the proper court in the county where the accident occurred. Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, Article 8307a. Since that time the trend of court decisions has been to treat the statute requiring compensation suits to be brought in the county where the accident occurred as a special venue statute, rather than one of “jurisdiction.” See Lloyds Casualty Co. v. Lem, Tex.Civ.App., 62 S.W.2d 497; Traders & General Insurance Co. v. Curby, Tex.Civ.App., 103 S.W.2d 398. Also, the New Texas Rules of Civil Procedure abolish the general demurrer and otherwise liberalize the formerly strict and technical rules applicable to petitions. The original petition in this case was sufficient to state a cause of action. Rules 47 and 90. Any defect, fault:or omission, “either of form or substance”, could be remedied by amendment. Rules 63, 66, 67. Such amendment related back to the filing of the original petition. Texas Emp.Ins.Ass’n v. Evans, 117 Tex. 113, 298 S.W. 516; Jagoe v. Indemnity Ins. Co., 120 Tex. 204, 36 S.W.2d 980. It would be unreasonable and unjust to hold that appellee lost his right to litigate his cause of action merely because of a technical omission — a mere failure to allege a venue fact which in fact existed. Such holding would be contrary to the letter as well as the spirit and purpose of the new rules.

Appellant also challenges the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that the injury described in his notice and claim filed with the Industrial Accident Board was not the same as that alleged in his petition in this suit.

In his notice and claim appellee described his injury as follows: “Cause of injury — picking up cement line ,off Hali-burtons truck, foot slipped and I fell back with pipe in hand and fell into lead tongs striking the lower part of my back on tongs.”

Appellee made claim before the- Industrial Accident Board for the injury and gave exactly the same cause for the injury.

Appellee stated the cause of his injury in his original petition as follows: “While lifting a heavy metal pipe and raising up upon the floor of said drilling rig with said heavy pipe backed into and struck his back in the area between his hips on a pair of Wilson Tongs thereby causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor of said rig with great force,” etc.

In appellee’s second amended petition, he alleged the cause of injury as follows: “In lifting a large piece of metal pipe weighing approximately two hundred (200) pounds from the floor of said drilling rig and while holding said large piece of pipe and attempting to raise it up, when he backed into and struck his back in the region of his hips on a pair of Wilson Tongs, thereby causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor of said drilling rig with great force and violence,” etc.

Appellant filed a plea to the jurisdiction, a plea in abatement, motion to dismiss, a special exception and objected to the introduction of the certified copy of the notice and claim for injury, all because the allegations in the pleading showed that appellee was suing for a different injury, occurring at a different place and in a different manner.

We think there was no material variance between the description of injury contained in the claim filed with the Industrial Accident Board and that contained in ap-pellee’s petition in this suit. Both describe the accident as occurring at 5:00 o’clock P. M. on the 22nd day of July, 1941, while working on drilling rig for Manahan Drilling Company in Clam Lake District near Sabine, Texas. Both set forth the injury to his back. Unquestionably the injury for which notice was given and claim filed was the one sued upon. The variance in describing the exact manner in which it occurred and the extent of the injury was not material. Southern Underwriters v. Boswell, 138 Tex. 255, 158 S.W.2d 280 ; Southern Underwriters v. Parker, Tex.Civ.App., 129 S.W.2d 738. The pleading prepared by experienced counsel described it more accurately and more fully. But it was one and the same accident, resulting in general disability for which compensation was sought before the Board and in this suit. Appellant had prompt notice of it and ample opportunity to investigate the accident and the extent of the injury. The assignments on this point are overruled.

Appellant assigns error on the refusal of the trial court to grant a new trial because the wife of one of the jurors sat [177]*177with or near the wife of the plaintiff during a portion of the trial and talked with her in the presence of the jury. It is contended that it is reasonable to suppose that the case was discussed and that the information given to Mrs. Clanahan wife of a juror, was passed on to the juror and influenced his verdict.

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172 S.W.2d 174, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 391, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/insurors-indemnity-ins-co-v-brown-texapp-1943.