McGinty v. Motor Truck Equipment Corp.

397 S.W.2d 263, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2264
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 1965
DocketNo. 16609
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 397 S.W.2d 263 (McGinty v. Motor Truck Equipment Corp.) 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
McGinty v. Motor Truck Equipment Corp., 397 S.W.2d 263, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2264 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

BATEMAN, Justice.

The appellant Ray McGinty sued the ap-pellee Motor Truck Equipment Corporation for damages to one of his trucks alleged to have been proximately caused by negligence of appellee.

Appellant owned five new dump trucks and bought bodies for them from appellee. Appellee installed the bodies by welding them to the chassis of the trucks, although a printed brochure published by the manufacturer of the bodies pictured one of them as being fastened with bolts. Shortly after such installation, on July 8, 1963, one of the bodies, heavily loaded, became severed from the truck chassis at the place where it had been welded thereon. Appellee then bolted this body to the truck chassis, at a charge to appellant of $95.56, and at that time ap-pellee’s shop foreman told appellant he should have the other four bodies bolted on also. Appellant acted on this advice to the extent of having three of them bolted and the remaining one, which was not bolted, was the one which came loose on July 22, 1963, falling forward and seriously damaging other parts of the truck.

The findings of the jury in response to special issues were: (1) appellee’s employees did not fail to install the bodies on the trucks in a good and workmanlike manner; (3) the failure of appellee’s employees to install the bodies with bolts was not negligence; (5) appellant did not fail to inspect the body of the dump truck damaged on or about July 22, 1963; (8) the failure of appellant, after July 8, 1963 and before July 22, 1963, to have the body attached to the dump truck in question with bolts was negligence, (9) which was a proximate cause of the damage to the truck in question; (10) after July 8, 1963 there was danger of the welded body of [266]*266the truck in question coming loose from the chassis; (11) appellant had knowledge of such danger, and (12) voluntarily exposed himself to the damage, if any, which might result from such danger; (13) such exposure was a proximate cause of the damages to the truck on July 22, 1963; (14) the instruction by the manufacturer of the dump truck bodies was not the sole cause of the damage. The jury then answered “None” to Special Issues IS, 16 and 17 inquiring as to appellant’s alleged damages. The court rendered judgment on this verdict that appellant take nothing, and he appeals on four points of error.

By his first point of error on appeal the appellant complains of the admission of certain printed instructions which appellee had received from the manufacturer of the bodies, recommending that these bodies be installed by welding them to the hinges at or near the rear of the chassis, instead of bolting them thereto. Appellee offered this sheet of instructions in evidence three different times, and each time appellant’s objection that it was hearsay was sustained. While the appellee was making its bill of exceptions to these rulings in the absence of the jury, it was developed that appellee kept a file of bulletins received from manufacturers of articles it sold as a dealer, which file was maintained in the usual course of its business by its employees under the custody and control of the shop superintendent. Thereupon the court announced that the instructions would be admitted under the authority of Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., Art. 3737e. It was so admitted when the jury returned.

We do not agree that the provisions of Art. 3737e would be applicable to this instrument, since it did not even purport to have been made by an employee or representative of appellee “with personal knowledge of such act, event or condition.” National Surety Corp. v. Moore, Tex.Civ.App., 386 S.W.2d 327, wr. ref. n. r. e.; Skillern & Sons, Inc. v. Rosen, Tex.Sup., 1962, 359 S.W.2d 298. However, we pretermit further discussion thereon because we do not think the hearsay rule has any application to this evidence.

As stated in McCormick & Ray, Texas Law of Evidence, § 781, p. 558, “The rule in truth is this: evidence of a statement made out of court when such evidence is offered for the purpose of proving the truth of such previous statement, is inadmissible as hearsay. It is obvious that such statements may be offered in evidence for a great number of other purposes than establishing the truth of the statement and whenever this is so the evidence is not hearsay and some other ground for its exclusion must be sought.” It is obvious to us from a reading of the record that ap-pellee did not offer the document in question to prove the truth of its contents, but to counteract the effect of a brochure appellant had introduced, which contained a picture of the dump body bolted to the truck chassis. Appellant had taken the position that appellee was negligent in welding the bodies on appellant’s trucks in the face of the manufacturer’s recommendation that they be attached by bolts. Appellee merely offered to prove by the document in question that later recommendations received from the manufacturer were that the bodies be welded rather than bolted. Whether the contents were true or false, the instrument was admissible as original and material evidence bearing on the question of appellee’s negligence. McAfee v. Travis Gas Corp., 137 Tex. 314, 153 S.W.2d 442.

Moreover, if this instrument were found to have been erroneously admitted in evidence, we would be compelled for two reasons to hold that under Rule 434, Vernon’s Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the error was harmless. In the first place, ap-pellee’s shop foreman had already testified without objection that the bodies had been welded on appellant’s trucks on recommendations of the manufacturer. To the same effect was testimony given by ap-pellee’s service manager, also without objection. The instrument was therefore merely cumulative of direct testimony of [267]*267two witnesses to the same effect, and any error in admitting it was harmless. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. De Leon, Tex.Civ.App., 373 S.W.2d 886, 889, wr. ref. n. r. e.

In the second place, the jury findings that appellant was guilty of contributory negligence, and that he had voluntarily exposed himself to a known danger, and that such negligence and such exposure were each proximate causes of the damages complained of, furnished adequate support for the judgment quite aside from the matter of appellee’s negligence.

Therefore, appellant’s first point is overruled.

By his second point of error appellant asserts that, since the instructions from the manufacturer, being hearsay, constituted no evidence, there was in fact no evidence to sustain the jury’s findings acquitting ap-pellee of the negligence charged against it.

The burden was on appellant to prove such negligence and obtain a jury finding thereof, not on appellee to disprove the same. The jury failed to find that such negligence existed. This they had a right to do, as they were not compelled to believe appellant or any of his witnesses. Moreover, in view of the positive findings of contributory negligence and voluntary exposure to known danger, any error in this respect would be harmless. Rule 434, T.R.C.P. The second point of error is overruled.

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397 S.W.2d 263, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcginty-v-motor-truck-equipment-corp-texapp-1965.