Producers Chemical Co. v. Goodrich

351 S.W.2d 362, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2715
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 2, 1961
DocketNo. 7114
StatusPublished

This text of 351 S.W.2d 362 (Producers Chemical Co. v. Goodrich) 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
Producers Chemical Co. v. Goodrich, 351 S.W.2d 362, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2715 (Tex. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinions

NORTHCUTT, Justice.

Billy Allen Stamps and Lillian Burnett, et al., as the plaintiffs brought suit against Producers Chemical Company, a corporation, for damages allegedly caused by Producers Chemical Co. Stamps brought suit for his personal injuries. Lillian Burnett, et al., brought suit, as the surviving wife and children of A. H. Burnett, for damages caused by the death of said A. H. Burnett.

It was alleged that Stamps was employed as a roughneck and A. H. Burnett was employed as a driller, and that they were employed by Canadian River Drilling Co. of Amarillo, Texas and were working on said company’s oil well drilling rig which was engaged in drilling an oil well on the Plutch Moore lands in Roberts County, Texas, when an explosion occurred at such place and on said date which caused the injuries as thereafter set forth. The pleadings then described the injuries and damages. The plaintiff then pleaded as follows: “Said rig was using compressed air as the agent or vehicle for carrying the cuttings from the hole being drilled, which air was being supplied by an air compressor then and there owned and operated and under the sole supervision of the defendant, Producers Chemical Company. Said compressor was attached, through lines belonging to said defendant, to the mudline of the employer of the plaintiff, and had been so set up and attached by the said defendant. Said compressor was allowed by said defendant to compress air into the said lines at a pressure of at least 1000 pounds, which air by reason of said compression had become heated, and when the same reached a critical point it combined with diesal fuel or lubricating oil which had entered said line through the said defendant’s compressor and exploded with great force and violence, shattering the said lines into small fragments and propelling them throughout the area where the rig was located and causing a blast which plaintiff alleges is the cause of his injuries.”

Plaintiff says that defendant Producers Chemical Company was negligent in the fol[364]*364lowing particulars and such negligence was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries and damages, viz.:

(a) In allowing its compressor to accumulate'a pressure in the lines in excess of 1000 pounds;

(b) In operating said compressor when the same was leaking lubricating oil through its pistons into the air lines;

(c) In pouring diesel fuel into said compressor so that it entered into the air lines;

(d) In operating said compressor when the same was without safety device or devices to prevent accumulation of air pressure in excess of 1000 pounds.

(e) In operating said compressor when the same had no device or devices for cooling the compressed air entering the line;

(f) In having an inexperienced operator in control of said compressor;

and each of such acts of negligence and all of the same, taken severally as well as collectively, was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries and damages as hereinafter set forth.

The two cases were tried together and submitted to a jury upon special issues. After the jury returned their answers to the special issues, the trial court entered an order declaring a mistrial because the jury’s answer to special issue 10 was in hopeless conflict with its answers to the several subdivisions of special issues 3, 4, and 5, and declared that the case should stand for trial in due course upon the merits.

The plaintiffs and defendant each have presented their motion herein to file mandamus, contending the trial court erred in declaring a mistrial, and both are contending they are entitled to judgment upon the verdict of the jury.

Since the only issues involved herein are issues 3, 4, S, and 10 the other issues will not be considered. Issues 3, 4, 5, and 10 and the answers of the jury thereto are as follows :

“Special Issue No. 3.
“(a) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that at the time and place in question E. S. McDonald, or any employee of the Defendant, Producers Chemical Company, operated its compressor when same was leaking oil into its outlet line?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer — Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (a) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (b) ; otherwise you need not answer same.
“(b) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such operation of the compressor, if you have so found, was negligence ?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
“Answer Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (b) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (c) ; otherwise you need not answer same.
“(c) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such negligence, if you have so found, was a proximate cause of the explosion in question?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“Special Issue No. 4
“(a) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that at the time and place in question Defendant, Producers Chemical Company, was operating its compressor without having thereon a device to prevent the accumulation of air pressure in excess of 1000 pounds?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (a) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (b) ; otherwise you need not answer same.
[365]*365"(b) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that such operation, if you have so found, was negligence?,
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (b) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (c); otherwise you need not answer same.
“(c) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that such negligence, if you have so found, was a proximate cause of the explosion in question?
“Answer 'Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“Special Issue No. 5
“(a) Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence, if any, that at the time and place in question Defendant, Producers Chemical Company, was operating a compressor that did not have on it a device for cooling the compressed air before the air entered the line?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (a) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (b); otherwise you need not answer same.
“(b) Do you find from a preponderance of evidence, if any, that such operation, if you have so found, was negligence?
“Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
“Answer Yes
“If you have answered subdivision (b) ‘Yes’, then answer subdivision (c); otherwise you need not answer same.

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Bluebook (online)
351 S.W.2d 362, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/producers-chemical-co-v-goodrich-texapp-1961.