Maryland Casualty Co. v. Landry

147 S.W.2d 290
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 23, 1941
DocketNo. 3758.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 147 S.W.2d 290 (Maryland Casualty Co. v. Landry) 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
Maryland Casualty Co. v. Landry, 147 S.W.2d 290 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

This is a compensation insurance case. Wilson. Landry was the employee, the Texas Can Company of Port Arthur, Texas, the employer, and Maryland Casualty Company the compensation insurance carrier. This is the second appeal in this case. See 129 S.W.2d 755. Wilson Lan-. dry while in the course of his employment, on October 13, 1936, received an injury for which he claimed compensation. The Industrial Accident Board awarded him compensation. From that award appellant appealed and filed this suit to set said award aside. On the first trial judgment was for appellee. On appeal that judgment was reversed. On the second trial (the instant hearing) judgment was again for appellee for total and permanent incapacity for 401 weeks at $15 per week, less partial payments of $8.40 per week for 9 weeks and 5 days made on the first 10 weeks, the compensation to be paid in a lump sum less legal discount, together with six per cent interest on all matured weekly payments to’ the date of judgment. Mo-’ tion for a new .trial was overruled, and this appeal followed.

There are 150 assignments of error urged by appellant. We shall discuss only those believed to' be necessary to a disposition of the appeal.

The first proposition urges that the court erred in refusing to give its requested special issue No. 11, which reads: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that any disability sustained by the cross-plaintiff, Wilson Landry, is temporary? Answer Yes or No.”

In answer to the third special issue, the jury found that appellee suffered total disability as a result of his injuries, and in answer to the fifth special issue that the total disability was permanent. The sixth special issue inquired: “How long, if for any length of time, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence such total disability, if any you have found, to exist? Answer by stating the length of time, if any.” The jury answered “permanent.”

The evidence raised the issue as to whether the total incapacity suffered by appellee from his injury was permanently total, or was temporary total disability. We think the requested charge covering this feature was appropriate, but we also think that the sixth special issue, set out supra, given to the jury covered the inquiry. The 3rd special issue inquired whether the disability was total, and the 5th whether such total disability was permanent. These were answered “Yes.” The 6th inquired for how long, if for any length of time, the total disability would exist, to which the jury answered “permanent.” In Traders & General Insurance Co. v. Herndon, Tex.Civ.App., 95 S.W.2d 540, this identical manner of inquiry as to temporary incapacity was held sufficient as against the court’s refusal to submit a requested special issue similar to that here requested. In the cited case the court held the matter under inquiry was sufficiently covered by the court’s charge in substance the same as here given. Petition for writ of error was dismissed in the Herndon case. The issue inquired for how long, if for any length of time, the total disability existed. The jury, if the facts warranted so doing, could have answered any length of time. They answered “permanent,” that is that the total disability would not end — in other words, was not temporary. While the issue could have been differently framed, and so better understood, yet the answers of the jury were consistent and did not reflect any confusion or misunderstanding of the questions. The assignment is overruled.

What we have said disposes of assignment two.

The court submitted special issue No. 10, which reads:

“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that Wilson Landry’s disability, if any, is not limited to his right hand ?
“In the event your answer is in the affirmative, the form of your answer should be ‘disability not limited to right hand’; otherwise the form of your answer shall be ‘No.’
“In answering the above special issue you are instructed that all injuries below the elbow are construed to be injuries to the hand; if any injury below the elbow *293 results in pain and suffering permanently rendering one disqualified to perform the usual tasks of a workman so as to obtain and retain employment, then the disability resulting from such injury is not limited to the hand.”

To this issue, and particularly the explanations following it, appellant objected on the grounds: (a) that when considered in connection with the explanation following same, it was a general charge; (b) that the explanation was not a definition of any legal term contained in the issue; and (c) that the explanation was not necessary to enable the jury to properly pass upon and render a verdict on said issue as authorized by Article 2189, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. This article provides: “In submitting special issues the court shall submit such explanations and definitions of legal terms as shall be necessary to enable the jury to properly pass upon and render a verdict on such issues.” Clearly the instruction or charge following the issue was not a definition of any word or term contained in the issue. The first part of the instruction, to wit: “In answering the above special issue you are instructed that all injuries below the elbow are construed to be injuries to the hand,” is correct. Article 8306, Section 12, providing compensation for specific injuries, provides that “For the loss of a hand, sixty per cent of the average weekly wage during one hundred and fifty weeks.” This is followed by the provision for the loss of an arm, towit: “For the loss of an arm at or above the elbow, sixty per cent, of the average weekly wage during two hundred weeks.” These two provisions, in determining whether the loss was one of the hand or arm, should be construed together, and since the loss, if above the elbow, is that of an arm, then necessarily the loss, if below the elbow would be the loss of a hand. But the remaining portion of the instruction, to wit: “If any injury below the elbow results in pain and suffering permanently rendering one disqualified to perform the usual tasks of a workman so as to obtain and retain employment, then the disability resulting from such injury is not limited to the hand,” is neither a definition nor an explanation of any legal or technical term in the issue, necessary to enable the jury to properly understand and pass upon and render a proper verdict on the issue, Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. McLean, Tex.Com.App., 280 S.W. 557.

As propositions 5 to 15, inclusive, involve questions similar to the above, they need not arise on another trial, and so will not be discussed.

We overrule the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th propositions complaining in various ways that the submission of special issue No. 3, inquiring whether the incapacity of appellee, if any, was total, was error. The issue was proper, being raised both by the pleading and the evidence. It was not subject to the objections levelled against it.

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Bluebook (online)
147 S.W.2d 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-casualty-co-v-landry-texapp-1941.