Jones v. United States Fire Insurance Company

420 S.W.2d 160, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2501
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 26, 1967
Docket7732
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 420 S.W.2d 160 (Jones v. United States Fire Insurance Company) 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
Jones v. United States Fire Insurance Company, 420 S.W.2d 160, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2501 (Tex. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Justice.

Appellant, John H. Jones, sued United States Fire Insurance Company, insurer for Will Rogers Range Riders, Inc., a riding and roping club (his employer on January 2, 1966), to recover workman’s compensation benefits for accidental injuries sustained when his pickup driven by his minor son collided with a train as he and his son were proceeding from Amarillo to Hereford. Appellee insurer’s motion for summary judgment was granted by the trial court and this case represents the appeal therefrom. The sole legal question before us is whether the pleadings, depositions and affidavits established as a matter of law that such injuries were not sustained in the course of his employment for assured. We hold they established as a matter of law that such injuries were not sustained in the course of his employment.

The record made by the summary judgment components shows appellant was hired in July 1965 to care for the club’s grounds, horses and roping steers and he and his family lived on the second story of the Range Rider’s Clubhouse located on the grounds.

For the purpose of this appeal only, ap-pellee admitted: “The employment contract required Jones to. furnish his own workhorse to be used in caring for Range Rider’s property and in working the club’s livestock.” They furnished him one stall for his horse. The club members’ horses and steers were out on pasture at times and had to be rounded up and brought into their stalls to be fed and watered. LeRoy Foster, supervisor of work activities at Range Riders, had told Jones he had to own his own horse. Soon afterwards he bought an eight-year old mare but when he learned Range Riders did not permit mares on the premises, he traded her for a stallion. He later acquired other horses but at the time in question he owned only a fifteen-month old colt he was grazing on wheat pasturage at Hereford. A week or two previous to January 2, 1966, he had sold the last horse he owned and kept at Range Riders for working the club’s animals. On the morning of the accident he “probably borrowed a horse from Mr. McMenamin,” president of the club, to round up animals for feed and water.

Jones was on call seven days a week and it was understood his two teenage boys who lived with him would help around the grounds when needed. They started feeding the horses and steers about 8:00 o’clock a. m. on the named date, Sunday, January 2, 1966, and by approximately 10:00 o’clock a. m. had completed the morning’s chores for Range Riders. Appellant then decided he wanted to go to Hereford and pay for wheat pasturage on two colts, one ten months of age owned by his son and one fifteen months of age owned by him. They were travelling in appellant’s pickup, he was furnishing his own fuel, .Range Riders did not own or have any interest in the two colts they were going to Hereford to pay pasturage on and the colts were too young to ride or serve any purpose in performing appellant’s services of employment.

Mrs. Jones’ deposition showed that she had no reason to believe her husband was going to Hereford on the Sunday morning of January 2, 1966, to do anything for Range Riders or to do anything for them on the way back, but only to pay pasturage on the two colts.

In the supplemental affidavit of appellant shown in the record he stated he would not have had any horses i f he had not gone *163 to work for Range Riders, “ * * * because other than my job out there, I had no use at all for these horses.” He also stated:

“Although Mr. Foster did not personally and orally direct me to go to Hereford on the particular day that I went I understood that it was part of my job to go over there and take care of my own horses, as the club had already told me, through Mr. Foster, that I had to own my own ho'rsés. I sure1 felt-like that I had been directed by the club to go over to Hereford on that day.
“To my knowledge, I was working for the club at the time the accident happened, taking care of my own horses, and that was part of my job.”

Mr. Foster’s affidavit shows he hired appellant “ * * * to take care of the club grounds, horses and livestock, and to do general maintenance work about the premises.”

“ * * * Plaintiff was under my supervision and control as to the work to be done and the details thereof at the club * * * I had no knowledge that Plaintiff was going to Hereford, Texas, or why he was going. The pickup in which Plaintiff was riding at the time of the accident was his personal pickup. The club furnished Plaintiff a pickup to use in his work and about the club grounds. At the time of the accident the trip to Hereford was not a part of the Plaintiff’s contract of employment with the club. The expense of the trip to Hereford on the occasion in question was not paid for by the club. I did not direct or request the Plaintiff to go to Hereford on the occasion in question for any purpose. I did not exercise any control or supervision over the Plaintiff in his going to Hereford at the time of the accident.
“To my knowledge Plaintiff was- not on any mission for or business of the club at the time of the accident.”

“Words and phrases defined” in Article 8309, Section 1, Vernon’s Tex.Civ.St, states:

“The term ‘injury sustained in the course of employment,’ * * * shall include all other injuries of every kind and character having to do with and originating in the work, business, trade or profession of the employer received by an employee while engaged in or about the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer whether upon the employer’s premises or elsewhere.”

In 1957 the legislature enacted Section lb under Article 8309. The first sentence thereof provides:

“Unless transportation is furnished as a part of the contract of employment or is paid for by the employer, or unless the means of such transportation are under the control of the employer, or unless the employee is directed in his employment to proceed from one place to another place, such transportation shall not be the basis for a claim that an injury occurring during the course of such transportation is sustained in the course of employment.”

Since this is a summary judgment case, we must follow certain rules laid down by the Supreme Court of Texas. Mr. Justice Greenhill speaking for that court in Great American Reserve Ins. Co. v. San Antonio Plumbing Supply Co., 391 S.W.2d 41 (Tex.1965) has recently spelled' out a number of those rules in the following language:

“The burden of proof is on the mov-ant, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue as to a material fact are resolved against him. Tigner v. First Nat’l Bank, 153 Tex. 69, 264 S.W.2d 85 (1954); Gulbenkian v. Penn, 151 Tex. 412, 252 S.W.2d 929 (1952). In other words, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Valley Stockyards Co. v. Kinsel, 369 S.W.2d 19 (Tex.Sup.

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Bluebook (online)
420 S.W.2d 160, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-united-states-fire-insurance-company-texapp-1967.