Lyondell Petrochemical Co. v. Fluor Daniel, Inc.

888 S.W.2d 547, 1994 WL 661146
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 17, 1994
Docket01-93-00151-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 888 S.W.2d 547 (Lyondell Petrochemical Co. v. Fluor Daniel, Inc.) 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
Lyondell Petrochemical Co. v. Fluor Daniel, Inc., 888 S.W.2d 547, 1994 WL 661146 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

HUTSON-DUNN, Justice.

Lyondell Petrochemical Company and Atlantic Richfield Company (collectively, Lyon-dell) filed a third-party action seeking contractual contribution from Fluor Daniel, Inc. (Fluor Daniel), for Fluor Daniel’s negligence, in connection with an underlying personal injury suit against Lyondell by a Fluor Daniel employee, Randall Trahan. The contribution case was tried to a jury, which, on the single question submitted to it, found that negligence, if any, on Fluor Daniel’s part was “0%” the proximate cause of Trahan’s accident.

Lyondell appeals, and raises three points of error, contending that the trial court committed reversible error (1) in excluding certain testimony of its expert witness, and (2) in its charge to the jury; and also contending that (3) the jury’s finding was manifestly unjust and against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. We reverse and remand. We deny appellee’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our previous opinion, and substitute the following opinion.

On January 16, 1989, Randall Trahan was injured while working as an employee of Fluor Daniel, at Lyondell’s petrochemical facility in Channelview, Texas. Fluor Daniel was adding onto a pipe rack at the plant, among other work. Trahan had been on the job for approximately one week. He was at ground level, standing fire watch for a welder, Stanton, working above him; Trahan’s task was to ensure that no fires were started by any welding sparks that escaped from the “fire box” welding enclosure. Trahan left that post when his foreman told him to come up the structure and “start connecting iron.” Once aloft, to get to where he needed to go, instead of choosing an alternative, safer route, Trahan attempted to walk across a high iron beam, where there was no cable to [550]*550hook onto with his safety belt and lanyard.1 He did not use the technique appropriate to such a situation and, while crossing the beam, he fell some 43 feet to the surface below.

Trahan and his family later brought a personal injury suit against Lyondell. Whether Trahan had a cause of action against Lyon-dell is not before us here; Lyondell settled the suit, paying approximately $3.7 million. Later still, in the contribution action, Fluor Daniel stipulated that the settlement amount was reasonable. The focus of the contribution trial was whether Fluor Daniel had been negligent in failing to train Trahan adequately in the safety precautions to be taken on the job. The single question submitted to the jury embodied two different theories on which Lyondell sought to recover, as well as the issue of whether Lyondell’s own negligence had contributed to Trahan’s accident.2 Lyondell’s first theory was that Fluor Daniel failed to use ordinary care in training Tra-han. Lyondell’s other theory was that Fluor Daniel’s training program was deficient under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.21(b)(2) (1992), promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and was therefore negligence per se.

Fluor Daniel conceded at trial of the contribution suit that section 1926.21(b)(2) was applicable to Trahan’s employment with Fluor Daniel. The regulation provides, “The employer shall instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to his work environment to control or eliminate any hazards or other exposure to illness or injury.”

In its first point of error, Lyondell asserts that the trial court committed reversible error in excluding certain testimony of its expert, Donald Waddell, to the effect that Fluor Daniel’s training program violated section 1926.21(b)(2). The trial court admitted contrary testimony on the same subject; Fluor Daniel’s former employee Bozell was allowed to testify that Fluor Daniel’s training program did not violate section 1926.21(b)(2).

The decision to admit or exclude evidence is committed to the discretion of the trial court, and is reviewed for abuse of that discretion. Syndex Corp. v. Dean, 820 S.W.2d 869, 873 (Tex.App.—Austin 1991, writ denied); Bolstad v. Egleson, 326 S.W.2d 506, 519 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1959, writ refd n.r.e.). To obtain reversal of a judgment based on error in the admission or exclusion of evidence, an appellant must show that the trial court’s ruling was in error and that the error was calculated to cause, and probably did cause, rendition of an improper judgment. Harrison v. Texas Em[551]*551ployers Ins. Ass’n, 747 S.W.2d 494, 498 (Tex.App.—Beaumont 1988, writ denied); Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil Co., 729 S.W.2d 768, 887 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1987, writ refd n.r.e.), cert. dism’d, 485 U.S. 994, 108 S.Ct. 1305, 99 L.Ed.2d 686 (1988); Tex. R.App.P. 81(b)(1).

At the contribution trial, Lyondell called all the witnesses. Five other witnesses testified before Waddell. The testimony of three of those witnesses — the ones who testified concerning whether Fluor Daniel’s training program was deficient — is germane here as background to an evaluation of the error Lyondell assigns concerning Waddell’s testimony.

W.H. “Taxi” Hundley, Fluor Daniel’s construction manager on the Channelview project, testified that when Trahan was hired by Fluor Daniel, he went through a classroom orientation program, approximately two and a half hours long. As part of that program, Trahan was shown a videotape, which included a section on fall protection measures. He also received a copy of the company’s employee handbook, approximately 50 pages long, which included safety guidelines about fall protection. Hundley further testified that every Monday, each Fluor Daniel foreman had a “gang box safety meeting,” at which a topic chosen by the plant safety department was discussed, and that each Tuesday, there was a mass safety meeting involving everyone on the project. He also testified that Trahan went through orientation on January 9, 1989, which was a Monday. The report of the January 10 safety meeting was introduced into evidence; it showed that the use of safety belts for work above ground was discussed, and that Trahan had attended that meeting. Finally, Hund-ley testified that he did not believe the orientation program was, by itself, an adequate and sufficient training program, but that the orientation, together with the gang box meetings and on-the-job interaction with supervisors and foremen, was a sufficient training program.

Walter Bozell was Fluor Daniel’s former occupational safety and health manager. Bo-zell’s responsibilities had included running the training and orientation program at the Lyondell plant where Trahan was injured.

Bozell testified that Trahan went through the orientation; and that the handbook contained sufficient information to have prevented Trahan’s accident — as did the videotape, Bozell said, when coupled with the accompanying classroom instruction. Bozell also testified that he personally orally discussed the correct use of fall protection equipment with new employees at the orientation.

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Bluebook (online)
888 S.W.2d 547, 1994 WL 661146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyondell-petrochemical-co-v-fluor-daniel-inc-texapp-1994.