Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Taylor

244 S.W.2d 350, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1792
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 25, 1951
Docket12324
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 244 S.W.2d 350 (Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Taylor) 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 Mut. Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 244 S.W.2d 350, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1792 (Tex. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal in a compensation suit brought by appellant, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board in favor of appellee, Raymond A. Taylor, for compensation benefits under Section 12, Art. 8306, Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306, § 12, alleged to be due for injuries received by him in the course of his employment with Continental Can Company, Inc., who carried compensation insurance with appellant.

Appellee alleged that in the course of his employment with appellant he.had received injuries to his left hand and middle finger thereof, which resulted in the total loss of use of the left hand for fifteen weeks and in a 50% partial loss of use of the hand which condition would be permanent or would extend beyond a period of 150 weeks after August 2, 1949. Appellant answered ■by general denial and by a special plea that whatever injury appellee may have received could not extend to or affect other portions of his body than his left third finger and that such injury and its effects have been and would be confined solely to such specific portion of his body. Appellant alleged that it had voluntarily paid to appellee $67.85 and sums of money for medical treatment rendered to appellee.

In answer to special issues submitted, a jury found that appellee had sustained the total loss of the use of his left hand from the injury complained of and that he had sustained or would sustain 50% permanent partial loss of the use of his left hand from November 16, 1949; that the injury to ap-pellee’s finger had extended to other parts of his left hand and was not confined entirely to his left middle finger and that the loss of the use of appellee’s left hand had not resulted solely from the loss of the use of his middle finger of his left hand.

Judgment was entered in favor of appel-lee for $25.00 per week for temporary total loss of use of his left hand for a period of 15 weeks from and after August 2, 1949, less the sums that had been paid, and for compensation benefits at the rate of $15.79 per week for permanent partial loss of use of his left hand for a period of 68 weeks from and after November 16, 1949. Ap-pellee was also awarded the sum of $1,464.-35 on account of accruing weekly benefits.

The primary issues made by the pleadings in this action are: (1) the extent of the injury sustained by appellee as a result of the injury to his middle finger and left ■hand and the percentage of the losses received by appellee, 'and, (2) whether said injuries extended to other parts of appel-lee’s left hand.

Appellant relies upon eight points of assigned error. Under its first point, appellant contends that the trial court committed error in refusing to* submit its requested issues inquiring as to whether or not the injury alleged and the effects thereof extended to other portions of appellee’s body •and whether any incapacity resulted to said finger by reason of said injury and whether such incapacity was temporary or permanent, partial or total, and the percentage thereof. This contention cannot, we think, be sustained for the reason that the same issues had been substantially submitted in Issues Nos. 9 and 11.

Special Issue No. 9 of the court’s charge inquired as to whether the injury to appel-lee’s finger had affected and extended to other parts of his left hand and Special Issue No. 11 inquired as to whether the loss of the use of appellee’s left hand, if the jury had so found, resulted solely from the loss of the use of his middle finger.

The substance of the requested issues was, we think, covered by Issues Nos. 9 and 11.

*353 It is well settled that it is not error for the court to refuse a requested issue which submits in a different form an issue which is covered by the court’s charge. Texas Indemnity Insurance Co. v. Smith, Tex.Civ.App., 143 S.W.2d 448, Maryland Casualty Co. v. Hill, Tex.Civ.App., 91 S.W.2d 391, Tennessee Dairies v. Seibenhausen, Tex.Civ.App., 99 S.W.2d 323, Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co. v. Max, Tex.Civ.App., 118 S.W.2d 383.

The decisions are also uniform in holding that a party is not entitled to- the submission of two- or mo-re issues relating to the same ground of recovery or matter o-f defense. Consolidated Underwriters v. Christal, Tex.Civ.App., 135 S.W.2d 127, Guzman v. Maryland Casualty Co., 130 Tex. 62, 107 S.W.2d 356, Texas & New Orleans Ry. Co. v. Neill, 128 Tex. 580, 100 S.W.2d 348.

The only affirmative defensive issues available to appellant in this case are those which would have defeated appellee’s claim. These defensive issues were-, we think, submitted by the trial court. Texas Employers Insurance Ass’n v. Patterson, 144 Tex. 573, 192 S.W.2d 255, Consolidated Underwriters v. Langley, 141 Tex. 78, 170 S.W.2d 463.

In the case of Texas Employers Insurance Association v. Patterson, supra, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court because the affirmative issue on the loss of the use o-f the hand was submitted conditionally upon the negative answer to a defensive issue.

Appellant relies upon the Patterson case and also on the case of Great American Indemnity Company v. Kingsbery, Tex.Civ.App., 201 S.W.2d 611, in which Kingsbery sought to recover for general injuries resulting from an injury to- his foot, leg and eye. The Court of Civil Appeals- reversed the trial court because it submitted the case to the jury on the general injuries rather than on the theory of specific injuries raised by the pleadings and proof.

Since the trial court’s charge substantially submitted appellant’s specially requested Issues Nos. 1 and 25 in Special Issues Nos. 9, 10 and 11, under Rule 279, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides in' effect that the court shall submit only the controlling issues made by the pleadings and evidence, it was not error, we think, for the court to refuse to submit them again. American Employers Insurance Company v. Climer, Tex.Civ.App., 220 S.W.2d 697, Lumbermen’s Mutual Casualty Company v. Zinn, Tex.Civ.App., 220 S.W.2d 906, writ refused.

Appellant’s specially requested Issues Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were, we think, properly refused by the trial court for the reasons that the Special Issue No. 2 was submitted conditionally upon appellant’s specially requested Issue No.

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244 S.W.2d 350, 1951 Tex. App. LEXIS 1792, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-mut-ins-co-v-taylor-texapp-1951.