Monk v. Cooper

454 S.W.2d 244, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2422
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 24, 1970
DocketNo. 7969
StatusPublished

This text of 454 S.W.2d 244 (Monk v. Cooper) 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
Monk v. Cooper, 454 S.W.2d 244, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2422 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

FANNING, Justice.

A damage suit. Plaintiffs, James Ray Monk and wife, Mrs. Mary Monk, sued Thomas Mark Cooper, seeking damages for personal injuries allegedly suffered by Mrs. Mary Monk and for damages to the Monk automobile, resulting from a collision when a jeep driven by Thomas Mark Cooper, owned by his father, Milton O. Cooper, struck the Monk car in the rear.

Milton O. Cooper filed a motion for summary judgment, which was sustained.

In response to special issues submitted the jury found one issue of primary negligence on the part of Thomas Mark Cooper, to-wit, failure to keep a proper lookout, and found the same to be a proximate cause of the accident in question. The jury also found one issue of contributory negligence on the part of James Ray Monk, the driver of the Monk automobile, to-wit, in failing to start after the traffic had cleared, and found the same to be negligence and a proximate cause. In response to the damages issue with respect to Mrs. Monk’s alleged damages for personal injuries (Issue 6, a, b, c, and d) the jury answered, “None”. The jury also found that the reasonable cash market value of the Monk automobile immediately prior to the collision was $250.00, and that the reasonable cash market value of said Monk automobile immediately after the collision was $183.00.

The judgment of the trial court recites the sustaining of the motion for summary judgment in favor of Milton O. Cooper, and the trial court entered a take nothing judgment in favor of Milton O. Cooper; the judgment recites the various findings of the jury on the special issues; the judgment recites the defendant’s motion for judgment was overruled and that plaintiff’s motion for judgment n. o. v. was sustained; the judgment then recites that plaintiffs recover of the defendant Thomas Mark Cooper the sum of $67.00 with all costs of suit. Plaintiffs-appellants James Ray Monk and wife Mary Monk have appealed.

Defendant-appellee, Thomas Mark Cooper, was living with his parents. His father, Milton O. Cooper, owned a jeep. Defendant-appellee’s uncle, who was visiting the Cooper family, wanted some cigars, and Thomas Mark Cooper informed his parents he was going to drive his uncle in the jeep over to a nearby 7-11 store so his uncle could buy cigars. On the return trip home from the store it was necessary for Cooper to turn left or go north on Gus Thomasson Road (in Dallas County, Texas) , which has a large, divided median strip approximately 20 feet wide. The Monk car proceeded to stop in the median strip to make a left turn, and defendant-appellee in the jeep with his uncle, pulled in behind the Monk car with about a foot and a half clearance and stopped behind the Monk car to wait for traffic to clear to make a left turn. After both the car and the jeep waited for a period of time for traffic to clear, defendant-appellee, apparently assuming that the traffic had cleared up and that the Monk car had gone on, drove his car at a very slow rate of speed and struck the rear of the Monk car, which was approximately about I1/2 feet away, inflicting slight damages to the Monk car, in the amount of $67.00. The Monk car was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Monk and the Monk children. None of the members of the Monk family in the car claimed any personal injuries except Mrs. Monk. By her [246]*246own admission, Mrs. Monk originally claimed that the only portion of her body that struck any portion of the car was her knee, which had a bruise on it about as big as a silver dollar. However, Mrs. Monk did not claim any disability to her knee and did not sue for any damages to her knee. Her principal complaint from the beginning, according to her evidence, was an alleged injury to her neck and to her back. She also sued for other alleged injuries and in the next two years after the accident she was operated on for gall bladder, peptic ulcer, adhesions, tubes, ovaries, uterus, hysterectomy and other things. It was also shown that she had prior operations and difficulties prior to the accident and some nine hospitalizations prior thereto in Paris, Texas.

Although Mrs. Monk admitted she had not struck any portion of the automobile other than her knee and, after one of her doctors testified that the only way he could connect all of these operations to the accident would be for her to have had some traumatic blow to her abdomen, the appellant Mrs. Monk, out of the presence of the jury, in effect sought to change her testimony and show that she was struck in the abdomen also, which the trial court refused to allow. Also, outside the presence of the jury, the court made statements to her admonishing her with respect to this matter. Also, out of the presence of the jury, heated statements were made by the attorneys in the presence of the court. Also, outside the presence of the jury, the court made statements to the attorneys which are shown in the record.

There was medical testimony pro and con on both sides. Defendant’s doctor, Doctor Sarris, found nothing wrong with Mrs. Monk. Also, motion pictures of Mrs. Monk’s activities were made by an investigator for defendant and these pictures were shown to the jury.

The trial court sustained a motion by defendant to instruct the jury to disregard testimony concerning the alleged injuries claimed by Mrs. Monk with respect to gall bladder, peptic ulcer, adhesions, tubes, ovaries and a hysterectomy. The trial court in his charge to the jury and in connection with Issue No. 6, instructed the jury in part as follows:

“ * * * In connection with this issue, you are instructed that you will only consider injuries, if any, and the consequences of such injuries, if any, that were caused directly and proximately from the accident in question, and you will exclude any other physical conditions that existed prior to or subsequent to the said accident in question or that may have resulted from any other cause.
“In connection with this issue, you are instructed, however, in arriving at your answers, you must not take into consideration or allow anything for the ad-hesions, gall bladder operation, removal of ovaries and tubes, removal of uterus, ulcer condition, removal of lipoma (fatty tissues), kidney condition, and thyroid condition.
“You are further instructed in arriving at your answers, you must not take into consideration or allow anything for physical pain and mental suffering resulting directly from an accident which the Plaintiff had on January 16, 1966, when she fell in a hole, and an accident in which she was hit from the rear in Paris, Texas, on May 12, 1967. * * * ”

We hold that under the record in this cause the trial court correctly granted appellee’s father, Milton O. Cooper’s motion for summary judgment because the “family purpose doctrine” does not obtain in Texas, and under the summary judgment facts the driver-son was not using the jeep at the father-owner’s direction or in the furtherance of the father-owner’s interest or business, nor were there any exceptions to said rule, to-wit: (a) the father-owner did not knowingly entrust the jeep to an incompetent, reckless or unlicensed driver; (b) the father-owner did not knowingly [247]*247entrust a defective vehicle to his son, nor did the father suffer his son to operate a defective vehicle on the highway. In this connection see the following authorities: Trice v. Bridgewater, 125 Tex. 75, 81 S.W. 2d 63, 100 A.L.R. 1014; Ener v. Gandy, 138 Tex. 295, 158 S.W.2d 989; Hanson v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
454 S.W.2d 244, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/monk-v-cooper-texapp-1970.