Risinger v. Fidelity and Deposit Co. of Maryland

437 S.W.2d 294, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2053
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 24, 1969
Docket17227
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 437 S.W.2d 294 (Risinger v. Fidelity and Deposit Co. of Maryland) 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
Risinger v. Fidelity and Deposit Co. of Maryland, 437 S.W.2d 294, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2053 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

BATEMAN, Justice.

The appellee Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland sued the appellant Donald W. Risinger and one Hugh M. Hart-son, alleged to have been doing business as Hartson Bureau of Investigation, for reimbursement of a loss alleged to have been sustained when it paid a claim of its insured, Samuels & Co., Inc., hereinafter called Samuels, under a burglary policy. It developed that Hartson had sold the Hartson Bureau'of Investigation to appellant prior to the events in question, and Hartson’s motion for summary judgment was sustained, and no one challenges the correctness of that order. Appellee filed an original and an amended motion for summary judgment. The latter was sustained as against Risinger, who now appeals.

Appellee alleged that during the months of November and December, 1966 large quantities of meat products were stolen from the premises of Samuels; that Hart-son Bureau of Investigation had contracted to furnish Samuels plant protection, including the patrolling and guarding of its premises during certain nighttime hours; and that on the occasions of such thefts one Robert Windsor, an employee of Hart-son Bureau of Investigation, while acting in the course and scope of his employment *296 in guarding the premises of Samuels “did participate, aid and abet and make possible the theft of said meat products by others by opening the entrance gates to the assured’s premises for the purpose of such thefts.”

Appellee’s petition presented two theories of recovery: (1) that Hartson Bureau of Investigation was liable “for such illegal, wrongful and tortious conduct which directly caused the damage”; and (2) that Windsor was guilty of numerous specified acts of negligence proximately causing the loss. Appellee alleged that it had paid Samuels the claim of $5,826.01, in consideration of which Samuels assigned its cause of action to appellee. The appellant answered by filing only a general denial.

Appellant’s first two points of error on appeal say that the court erred in granting summary judgment for appellee because documentary evidence introduced in support of the motion contained inadmissible hearsay. The third point of error complains because the admissibility of certain exhibits attached to appellee’s pleadings was not supported by the pleadings themselves. In his Point Four appellant complains because appellee failed to show the absence of a genuine issue of material fact in one or more of eleven specified areas, four of which are:

(E) Whether the alleged loss and the alleged amount thereof proximately resulted from the alleged thefts and burglaries;

(F) Whether any loss occurred to Sam-uels for which appellant is liable;

(H) Whether appellant had agreed to perform any services for Samuels at the times and places pertinent herein;

(J) Whether Robert Windsor was a servant or agent of appellant acting within the scope of his employment at the time and place in question.

In its fifth point of error appellant complains of the overruling of his motion to strike the motion for summary judgment.

We consider it desirable to discuss all of these points of error together.

At the outset, let us consider the role in which appellee cast itself, and the additional burdens it assumed, when it presented a motion for summary judgment. It was under the burden at all times of establishing the essential elements of its asserted cause of action by a preponderance of the evidence, but by moving for summary judgment it assumed the additional burden of showing that there was no genuine issue as to any material fact pertinent to such cause of action and that it was entitled to the judgment prayed for as a matter of law. In passing on whether this additional burden has been discharged, the court must resolve all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue as to a material fact against the movant, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Great American R. Ins. Co. v. San Antonio Pl. Sup. Co., 391 S.W.2d 41, 47 (Tex.Sup.1965) and the cases cited therein.

Three essential elements of appellee’s cause of action were: (1) the status of Robert Windsor as an employee of appellant; (2) the wrongful or negligent conduct of Robert Windsor, while acting in the course and scope of such employment, which proximately caused loss to Samuels; and (3) the amount of such loss. Unless the proof submitted in support of its motion for summary judgment can be said to establish, at least prima facie, all three of these elements, it must be held that appel-lee failed to carry its burden of showing that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. There were other elements of the cause of action, such as the contract between appellant and Samuels and the assignment of the cause of action by Samuels to appellee, but these seem to us to have been established satisfactorily. However, we cannot say this with respect to the three elements first mentioned.

We find no evidence in the record to the effect that Windsor was ever *297 an employee of appellant. Appellee says this is not in dispute as appellant has not denied that he was liable as the master or principal of this alleged employee, as required by Rule 93, Vernon’s Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. That rule requires that a pleading of any of twenty-two designated matters be verified by affidavit unless the truth thereof appear of record, but we do not find therein, or elsewhere, a requirement that a denial of agency or of the employment of an individual must be either specially pled or verified. Appellee relies upon subdivision (c) of the rule which requires verification of a pleading “that the defendant is not liable in the capacity in which he is sued.” No authority is cited in support of this contention, and we have found none. We do not agree with appellee that a defendant, sued under the doctrine of respondeat superior, must deny under oath that he is liable under that doctrine. That is not “the capacity in which he is sued,” within the contemplation of subdivision (c) of Rule 93. Therefore, we hold that appellee failed to establish this essential element of its cause of action.

To establish that Robert Windsor, while acting within the course and scope of his employment, was guilty of wrongful or negligent conduct proximately causing the theft of the meat products, appellee relies on two documents purporting to be voluntary statements by Windsor to the police following his arrest for his alleged complicity in the thefts, and an affidavit of one Lester Hayes.

Without quoting the rather lengthy affidavit of Lester Hayes, we see that he does swear therein that he witnessed one of the thefts of meat products from Samuels’ plant; and he recites several conversations he heard which tended to prove that “the gate guard Robert Windsor who was on duty at the front gate,” connived with the thieves and permitted the thefts to occur. However, it contains nothing to indicate by whom Robert Windsor was employed. So far as we can tell from the affidavit, Windsor may have been employed by Sam-uels, or by appellant, or possibly by someone else.

Moreover, it should be remembered that subdivision (e) of Rule 166-A, T.R.C.

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Bluebook (online)
437 S.W.2d 294, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2053, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/risinger-v-fidelity-and-deposit-co-of-maryland-texapp-1969.