Johnson v. Houston Sports Ass'n

615 S.W.2d 781, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4255
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1980
Docket17620
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 615 S.W.2d 781 (Johnson v. Houston Sports Ass'n) 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
Johnson v. Houston Sports Ass'n, 615 S.W.2d 781, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4255 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

DOYLE, Justice.

This is a suit for damages for personal injuries sustained by Janice Graham Johnson, who was struck in the face by a baseball during pre-game batting practice by the Philadelphia Phillies at the Astrodome in 1974. The trial court rendered a take-nothing judgment for appellant based upon a jury verdict finding no negligence on the part of appellees. We affirm.

The Houston Astros and the Phillies were scheduled to play a ball game. Appellant admits that at the time she was injured she was not sitting behind the specially screened seats offered to protect spectators from injuries. She was sitting in an open area in the center field section in line with second base.

Appellant sued the Houston Sports Association (HSA) owners of the Houston Ast-ros; the Astrodome-Astrohall Stadium Corporation (A-ASC); and the Philadelphia National Baseball League, Inc. (Phillies). All three defendants are appellees for the purpose of this appeal. Appellant essentially alleged the appellees failed to adequately warn her of the hazards incident to baseball; failed to maintain the stadium lighting without glare or similar conditions that could and/or did blind plaintiff from following the flight of the baseball; and they failed to provide a protective screen for all seats in the stadium. A unanimous jury answered these issues exonerating appellees from any negligence in these three areas, warnings, lighting and screens.

On this appeal she asserts three points of error. HSA, A-ASC and the Phillies each allege three cross-points of error. In her first point of error appellant contends that the court erred in instructing the jury on unavoidable accident. In the charge to the jury the court gave the following instruction:

An occurrence may be an unavoidable accident, that is, an event not proximately caused by the negligence of any party to it.

Appellant argues that there was no evidence or insufficient evidence to permit an instruction on unavoidable accident. She cites the Texas Supreme Court case of Yarborough v. Berner, 467 S.W.2d 188 (Tex.1971), saying that Texas law holds that unavoidable accident could not be raised by evidence that suggests no cause for the accident other than actions of the parties to the event. She then argues that HSA and A-ASC stipulated that their actions were to be considered one and the same for purposes of issue submission to the jury. Therefore, she continues, the only parties to this event are HSA and the Phillies. Appellant further explains that since the game was in the Astrodome and that since the ball came from the playing field it had to be set in motion by either the Astros or the Phillies, both of whom were parties to the event, so the theory of unavoidable accident is not to be applied in the case at bar because the defendants were involved in the event.

We believe that appellant has misinterpreted the Yarborough case. Yarborough did not discuss the simple conduct of the parties to the event, but the negligent conduct of the parties.

Negligence is the failure to exercise ordinary care or the degree of care that *784 the law requires. 40 Tex.Jur.2d Negligence § 1 (Rev. ed. 1976) p. 118. In order to review the sufficiency of the evidence, this court must review the evidence on negligent conduct and not merely the conduct of the parties involved. Appellant agrees that to answer this point of error the evidence regarding negligence on the part of the appellees must be viewed in the light most favorable to the appellees. Garcia v. Prescott, 570 S.W.2d 562 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1978, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Davis v. Thompson, 581 S.W.2d 282 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1979, writ ref’d n.r.e.).

Reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellees shows there was evidence to raise the issue of unavoidable accident. By her admission, appellant stated she saw the screened area behind home plate; that the seats in this area were not filled; and that she made no attempt to sit in this protected area. Several witnesses testified that the screened-in seats at the Astrodome are visible from all over the field; that the screens are the same or similar to those used by stadia all over the country, and that this area in the Dome offers more protection than the same area in many other stadia.

The evidence in this case is more than ample to permit the instruction of unavoidable accident. Appellees followed the same or similar practices with regard to this game and the stadium as do baseball clubs and stadia around the country. Appellants’ first point of error is overruled.

Appellant states in her second point of error that the court erred in refusing to submit Plaintiff’s requested Special Issue No. 9-b, which reads as follows:

If you have answered Special Issue No. 8, subsection (a), and only in that event, then answer:
Special Issue No. 9-b
Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such ball was negligently knocked into the stands on the occasion in question?
In special issue 8 submitted by the court, the jury was asked whether the ball came from the batting coach, the batting cage, or neither; the jury found the ball came from a batting cage. Appellant argues that special issue 9-b, as requested, should have been submitted by the court because the non-submission of said issue deprived appellant of a finding on an ultimate issue of fact, to-wit: the reasonableness of the conduct of appellees and its relationship with the injury to appellant. Appellant’s argument is without merit. There is no evidence that the batter who struck the ball that hit Miss Graham committed any negligent act in striking the ball, or that the batter conducted himself in this situation differently from the practices of other baseball players on the various clubs. Knebel v. Jones, 266 S.W.2d 470 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1954, writ ref’d. n.r.e.); McNiel v. Fort Worth Baseball Club, 268 S.W.2d 244 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1954, writ ref’d.); Williams v. Houston Baseball Ass’n., 154 S.W.2d 874 (Tex.Civ.App.—Galveston 1941, no writ); Keys v. Alamo City Baseball Co., 150 S.W.2d 368 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1941, no writ).

Further, it was not error for the court to refuse appellant’s issues because such issues did not comply with Rule 279, T.R.C.P. which provides:

“Failure to submit an Issue shall not be deemed a ground for reversal of the judgment, unless its submission, in substantially correct wording, has been requested in writing and tendered by the party complaining of the judgment.”

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Bluebook (online)
615 S.W.2d 781, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-houston-sports-assn-texapp-1980.