Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Upton

492 S.W.2d 623, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2436
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 16, 1973
Docket17391
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 492 S.W.2d 623 (Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Upton) 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 Mutual Insurance Company v. Upton, 492 S.W.2d 623, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2436 (Tex. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

This appeal is by the insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, from a judgment awarding the children of Mrs. Ruth Upton, deceased, death benefits under the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Law by reason of Mrs. Upton’s death while employed by Monnig’s Dry Goods Store in Fort Worth, Texas. The trial below was non-jury.

Mrs. Upton was employed as a saleslady in the infant’s department of the dry goods store. On January 8, 1971, while she was on the job on the store premises in the department where she worked and while she was talking over the telephone on company business, Mrs. Upton’s ex-husband walked up and shot her four times and stomped her and she died from the injuries.

Appellant has four points of error which can be broken down into two basic contentions, namely: (1) Mrs. Upton was not, within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, Art. 8309, Sec. 1, Subsection 2, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St, acting within the course of her employment at the time she was killed because the undisputed evidence showed that her death was caused by the act of a third party who intended to injure her because of reasons personal to him and which were not directed against her as an employee or by reason of her employment; and (2) appellees did not meet their burden of showing at the trial that Mrs. Upton’s injuries that caused her death were sustained in the course of her employment because there was no evidence tending to show that such injuries had to do with and originated in the work or business of the employer as is required by Subsection 4 of Sec. 1 of Art. 8309, V.A.C.S.

The undisputed evidence showed that Mr. and Mrs. Upton had been divorced twice, the last time being in 1968. They had argued a lot over child support, visitations, and petty things. They were mad at each other a lot. On the morning of the killing Mrs. Upton told a fellow employee that Upton had threatened to kill her. Later in the day Upton walked up, pulled his gun, and shot her. Two or three days before the killing the Uptons were heard arguing about child support and other matters and she was trying to get him to leave her home.

There was evidence that Upton had a history of emotional disorders dating back to his childhood. A psychiatrist testified that Upton had a very definite paranoid type of illness and that even as a child he had thought the teacher and other students plotted against him. He was obsessed with the fact that everyone was out to harjn him and that they were talking about him. This doctor’s opinion was that at the time of the killing Upton was not capable of entertaining a rational intention; that he was mentally ill; that he was a schizophrenic and had a schizophrenic thought disorder and illness. In the doctor’s opinion even though Upton’s reasons for shooting his wife were schizophrenic and psychotic, they were nevertheless reasons personal to him.

The trial court found that Mrs. Upton was acting in the course of her employment for Monnig’s at the time she received the injuries that caused her death; that Mr. Upton at the time he shot and killed Mrs. Upton was not mentally capable of forming a rational intention to injure her; that Upton was at the time of doing the act incapable of rational reasoning and was of unsound mind.

The trial court concluded that Subsection 2 of Section 1 of Art. 8309, V. A.C.S., did not apply in this case. We agree with that conclusion.

The evidence here was sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that Mr. Up *625 ton was not mentally capable of forming a rational intention to injure Mrs. Upton. This finding is the key to deciding the question being discussed.

Texas courts hold that where the mind of the third person that inflicts the injury to the employee is incapable of entertaining a rational intention or is incapable of reasoning that the statutory exception provided for in Subsection 2 of Section 1 of Art. 8309 does not apply. Travelers Insurance Company v. Hampton, 414 S.W.2d 712 (Eastland, Tex.Civ.App., 1967, ref., n. r. e.) and Petroleum Casualty Co. v. Kincaid, 93 S.W.2d 499 (Eastland, Tex.Civ.App., 1936, app. for writ of err. dism. in 132 Tex. 325, 122 S.W.2d 1048). The basis of the holdings in those cases is that the intent to injure spoken of in the statute means a rational intent. If the mind of the third person who inflicted the injury on the employee was incapable of entertaining a rational intent' then such third person, within the meaning of the statute, had no intention to injure the employee at the time in question.

We overrule appellant’s contentions to the effect that it is not liable because of the provisions of Subsection 2, Section 1, Art. 8309, V.A.C.S.

“The controlling issue in all compensation cases is whether claimant received an accidental injury in the course of his employment . . . . ” Potomac Insurance Company v. Milligan, 335 S.W.2d 648 (Fort Worth Civ.App., 1960, ref., n. r. e.). (Emphasis ours.)

Appellant also contends on this appeal that the injuries that caused Mrs. Upton’s death were not shown to have been sustained within the course of her employment within the meaning of the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Law because no evidence was offered during the trial of the case to show that Mrs. Upton’s injuries that caused her death “had to do with” and “originated in the work or business of the employer” as is required by Subsection 4, Section 1, of Art. 8309, V.A.C.S.

The burden of proof was on the appellees here to show that the injuries that resulted in Mrs. Upton’s death were sustained by her while she was acting in the course of her employment within the meaning of the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Law as is set out in the various subsections of Section 1, Art. 8309, V.A.C. S. Texas Employers Ins. Ass’n v. Monroe, 216 S.W.2d 659 (Galveston, Tex.Civ.App., 1948 ref., n. r. e.). For other cases see 63 Tex.Jur.2d 423, Workmen’s Compensation, Sec. 405.

The trial court’s finding on course of employment was: “Ruth Upton was engaged in or about the furtherance of the affairs or business of Monnig Dry Goods Company when she received an injury which was the producing cause of her death, and was, therefore, in the course of her employment for Monnig Dry Goods Company at such time.”

As to such a finding the courts say: “ ‘In order that an employee may recover under the provisions of this law, proof that his injury occurred, while he was engaged in or about the furtherance of the employer’s affairs or business is not alone sufficient. He must also show that his injury was of such kind and character as had to do with and originated in the employer’s work, trade, business, or profession.’ ” See Texas Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Clark, 125 Tex. 96, 81 S.W.2d 67 (Tex.Com.App., 1935); Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Burnett, 283 S.W. 783 (Tex.Com.App., 1926); and Texas General Indemnity Company v.

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Bluebook (online)
492 S.W.2d 623, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-mutual-insurance-company-v-upton-texapp-1973.