Morgan v. Luna

337 S.W.2d 139, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2362
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 25, 1960
Docket5381-5388
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 337 S.W.2d 139 (Morgan v. Luna) 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
Morgan v. Luna, 337 S.W.2d 139, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2362 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

LANGDON, Chief Justice.

This is a “guest statute” case arising out of a weekend fishing trip by a number of employees of the Broncho Chevrolet Company, five of whom, including plaintiffs Eusebio Luna and Ray Kitson, Jr., were occupants of a new Chevrolet sedan which overturned at an “S” curve approximately 23 miles south of Ozona, while being operated by defendant Virgil Morgan.

*141 Separate suits were brought in the court below by Eusebio Luna (Cause No. 12,284), and by Ray Kitson, Jr. (Cause No. 12,600), against Virgil Morgan and Broncho Chevrolet Company, for injuries they claimed to have received in the accident. The two suits were consolidated and tried together before a jury.

For the sake of clarity, we will refer to the parties as plaintiffs and defendants. Plaintiffs Luna and Kitson alleged that defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company sponsored the employee fishing trip for its own benefit, and that defendant Morgan was acting in the scope of his employment in driving the other employees. Plaintiffs plead that Morgan was guilty of causal gross negligence in various particulars. Both defendants pleaded the doctrine of assumed or incurred risk, contributory negligence as a matter of law, and volenti non fit injuria. Broncho Chevrolet Company denied that Morgan was its agent on the trip in question; but both defendants further pleaded that if Morgan was in the scope of his employment, then plaintiffs Luna and Kitson were, also, and their common law suit was barred by section 3 of Article 8306, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes of Texas.

At the close of plaintiffs’ evidence, the trial court granted the motion of defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company for instructed verdict, which action was excepted to by plaintiffs, and the cause continued in trial as between the plaintiffs, Luna and Kitson, and the defendant Virgil Morgan. The case was submitted to the jury on 54 special issues.

By its verdict, the jury found that defendant Morgan was guilty of causal gross negligence with respect to both speed and lookout; that on the trip in question, Morgan had been driving in a reckless or incompetent manner; further, that Morgan was driving while under the influence of an intoxicating beverage. The jury found that both Luna and Kitson knew that Morgan was operating the automobile in a reckless or incompetent manner; that each, thereafter, had a reasonable opportunity to get out of the car and failed to do so; that their failure to get out of the car was a proximate cause of their injuries. In the case of Luna, the jury found that his failure to get out of the car was not negligence, but that Kitson’s failure to disembark was negligence. The jury also found that both Kitson and Luna knew that Morgan was operating the automobile while under the influence of an intoxicating beverage, and that each thereafter had a reasonable opportunity to leave the car, but failed to do so. Again, the jury found that Kitson was negligent in failing to remove himself from the car, and that such failure was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained by him; but that Luna’s failure to get out of the car was not negligence.

Other relevant findings were that Luna failed to protest to the defendant Morgan, as an ordinarily prudent person would have done under the same or similar circumstances, concerning the manner in which Morgan was driving the automobile, but that he (Luna) was not negligent in failing to protest. It found that Kitson did protest the manner in which Morgan was driving. Further, the jury found that both Luna and Kitson joined Morgan in the drinking, but that such conduct was not negligence; that neither plaintiff was injured in the course of any business of Broncho Chevrolet Company; that Kitson sustained $15,000 actual damages, plus $5,000 exemplary damages, and that Luna sustained $13,000 actual damages and $5,000 exemplary damages.

The judgment granted the motion of defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company for instructed verdict, and entered judgment in favor of Broncho Chevrolet Company; to which action both plaintiffs, as well as the remaining defendant, Virgil Morgan, excepted. Judgment was entered upon the verdict of the jury in favor of Eusebio Luna against defendant Virgil Morgan, to which the defendant Morgan duly excepted and gave timely and proper notice of appeal. Plaintiff Ray Kitson, Jr. was *142 denied any recovery, to which he duly and timely excepted and gave notice of appeal.

Separate appeals were taken from this judgment. An appeal was perfected by appellant Virgil Morgan (defendant below), against appellee Eusebio Luna (plaintiff below), and is docketed in this court as Cause No. 5381; and an appeal was perfected by plaintiff Ray Kitson, Jr., as appellant, against defendants Broncho Chevrolet Company, a corporation, and Virgil Morgan, as appellees, docketed in this court as Cause No. 5388. We are of the opinion that Cause No. 5388 should be consolidated with Cause No. 5381 for purposes of this opinion, and it is so ordered.

We will consider first the appeal of plaintiff Ray Kitson, Jr., appellant, versus Virgil Morgan and Broncho Chevrolet Company, appellees. All parties will be referred to as plaintiffs and defendants, as they were in the trial court.

Plaintiff Kitson urges seven points of error. By Points One and Two, he contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion of defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company for instructed verdict; or, in the alternative, that the cause be withdrawn from the jury as to defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company; and the error of the trial court in refusing to permit the plaintiff, Kitson, to prove how he secured his knowledge of where the employee benefit money came from.

After plaintiffs had rested their case, defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company moved for judgment in favor of Broncho Chevrolet Company and against each of the plaintiffs, on the ground that there was no evidence, or that the evidence was insufficient, to support a finding by the jury that the defendant Virgil Morgan was, at the time of the accident in question, in the course or scope of his employment. We have examined the record as a whole, and have carefully considered all exceptions and bills perfected in behalf of Ray Kitson, Jr., as well as for both plaintiffs, with respect to the defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company; and having considered all such evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, and disregarding all evidence to the contrary, we are of the opinion that the evidence is wholly insufficient to support a judgment in favor of Kitson, or either of the plaintiffs, against Broncho Chevrolet Company. (Plaintiff Luna did not appeal from the court’s action in this regard). Plaintiffs attempted to show that defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company maintained a fund from the proceeds of cold-drink, candy, etc., vending machines, located on its premises for employee benefits, and offered evidence that the money for an employee Christmas party had come from this fund. There was no evidence, however, that the money from the employees’ fund was used to finance the trip in question, and none was developed by plaintiff’s bill.

It follows that we think the trial court was correct in withdrawing plaintiffs’ suit against defendant Broncho Chevrolet Company from the jury, and in rendering judgment in favor of Broncho Chevrolet Company and against both plaintiffs as to said defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
337 S.W.2d 139, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morgan-v-luna-texapp-1960.