Liberty Cab Co. v. Green

262 S.W.2d 522, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2069
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 1953
Docket4943
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 262 S.W.2d 522 (Liberty Cab Co. v. Green) 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
Liberty Cab Co. v. Green, 262 S.W.2d 522, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2069 (Tex. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

R. L. MURRAY, Justice.

This is an appeal by Jim Clark, doing business as Liberty Cab Company, from a judgment in the district court of Liberty County against him and in favor of ap-pellee, Will Green. Green sued appellant for damages for personal injuries suffered by his wife, Clara Green, in a collision •between an automobile and a taxicab owned by appellant, while Clara Green was a passenger for hire in the taxicab. The case was tried to a jury, and on the jury’s verdict and a stipulation by the parties the trial court rendered judgment for appellee against appellant for the sum of $12,382. After his amended motion for new trial was overruled, appellant duly perfected his appeal.

The appellant’s points of error on appeal are as follows:

First point: The error of the court in not granting appellant a new trial, because when examined on his voir examination by appellant’s attorney concerning his qualifications, interest, bias and prejudice as a juror, each of four prospective jurors (Tait, Robertson, Carouthers and Knight) who each participated thereafter as a juror in the verdict in this case, concealed mate *524 rial information, which if revealed by him, would have caused a peremptory challenge to have been exercised against him by appellant’s attorney; and if the information concealed by him alone would not have sufficed to entitle appellant to a new trial and to reversal of the judgment as sought by appellant on this appeal, then the combined information concealed by the four prospective jurors together, did suffice to do so and is sufficient to require that the reversal be granted by this Honorable Court.

Second point: The error of the court in overruling defendant’s “Motion to Exclude Findings of Fact as Any Part of Record” where this was a case tried to a jury.

Third point: The error of the court in refusing a defendant’s witness the privilege during the giving of her testimony, of refreshing her memory from a statement in writing which she had previously executed.

Fourth point: The error of the court in refusing to permit the defendant for the purpose of contradicting a material statement as made by one of his witnesses during the giving of her testimony and for her impeachment on the subject, to introduce into evidence a statement which she had previously executed in writing.

We will consider appellant’s second point first. We find no error in the action of the trial court in overruling the appellant’s motion to exclude the findings of fact from the record in this case. The findings of fact were made by the trial court and were included in the court’s order overruling the defendant’s amended motion for new trial. The appellant relies upon the cases of Farr v. Kirby Lumber Corp., Tex.Civ.App., 203 S.W.2d 815 and Jones v. Elliott, Tex.Civ.App., 259 S.W.2d 288, as authority for his statement that the trial court had no authority to make such findings of fact in the Farr case. That case was tried to a jury and resulted in an instructed verdict. The holding of the Court of Civil Appeals was that any attempted findings of fact made by the trial court in regard to the evidence received on the trial of the case were without any legal significance on appeal, since the trial court had no authority to make such findings of fact. In the instant case, however, on a hearing on a motion for new trial, which motion alleged misconduct on the part of some of the jurors who heard the case, the law places the authority and responsibility upon the trial judge to hear and determine questions of fact in making a decision upon such a motion. It is also a well recognized rule that when a trial judge overrules a motion for new trial without making any findings of fact, a reviewing court will assume that the trial court found adversely to all the allegations of fact alleged by the complaining party. We think there is no question but that the trial court had the authority to make findings of fact in passing upon this motion for a new trial. As a reviewing court, we are bound by such findings of fact by the trial court, if such findings are supported by sufficient evidence adduced upon such hearing. See Eubank v. Hopkins, Tex.Civ.App., 238 S.W.2d 720.

Under his first point the appellant shows that at the time of the examination of the jury panel in the trial court he asked a number of questions addressed to the panel as a whole and later examined each prospective juror individually. He contends that he inquired in particular of the jurors, Tait, Robertson, Carouthers and Knight, whether each of them had had any claims for workmen’s compensation benefits and that all four of said jurors had had such claims and had collected and received benefits for workmen’s compensation and did not reveal to him on examination that they had had such claims; that if such information so concealed had been given by the prospective jurors to his counsel at the time of examination it would have caused a peremptory challenge to be exercised against them by 'his attorney. The appellee, however, answers this contention by pointing out that the questions by the appellant’s counsel to the entire panel of prospective jurors as a group and also to the individual members of the panel con *525 veyed the' idea to the jurors that counsel was inquiring about lawsuits or contested controversial claims and thus such questions did not amount to such diligence on the part of appellant’s counsel to discover the facts about the four individual jurors and their compensation payments as will require a reversal of the case.

We copy here the questions asked the four jurors by counsel for the appellant and the answers of the jurors, on voir dire examination.

Knight (first member of the panel questioned on voir dire).

“Q. Mr. Knight, I will ask you whether or not you have yourself, or any of your family, including your wife, children, brothers, sisters or parents, have had occasion to have a lawsuit for personal injuries, either from an automobile wreck, workmen’s compensation or otherwise? A. No, sir.”
Carouthers (fourth member of the panel questioned on voir dire).
“Q. Have you ever had the experience of either having a claim for yourself or any member of your family, including your parents, brothers or sisters, growing ■out of a collision or compensation claim? A. No, sir.”
Tait (tenth member of the panel questioned on voir dire).
“Q. Have you ever had any type of claim or damage suit about which I have asked here, either for yourself or any member of your family? A. No, sir.”
Robertson (twenty-second member of the panel questioned on voir dire).
“Q. Have you had any claims, either yourself or any member of your family, of the type I have been asking about? A. No, sir.”

In his questions to the other twenty-one members of the jury panel counsel for the appellant asked the following questions:

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Bluebook (online)
262 S.W.2d 522, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2069, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-cab-co-v-green-texapp-1953.