Robert Ray Perez and Rhonda Lee Arevalo v. Arturo Zepeda Arredondo, CUSA KBC, LLC D/B/A Kerrville Bus Company

452 S.W.3d 847, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12923, 2014 WL 6864817
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 3, 2014
Docket04-13-00646-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 452 S.W.3d 847 (Robert Ray Perez and Rhonda Lee Arevalo v. Arturo Zepeda Arredondo, CUSA KBC, LLC D/B/A Kerrville Bus Company) 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
Robert Ray Perez and Rhonda Lee Arevalo v. Arturo Zepeda Arredondo, CUSA KBC, LLC D/B/A Kerrville Bus Company, 452 S.W.3d 847, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12923, 2014 WL 6864817 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by:

Karen Angelini, Justice

On June 24, 2010, Arturo Arredondo was driving a charter bus for Kerrville Bus Company (“KBC”) on Highway 281 when he failed to stop the bus in time to prevent it from hitting the back of a pick-up truck driven by Robert Perez. Twenty-one-year-old Perez and his mother, Rhonda Arevalo, suffered personal injuries as a result of the accident. They sued Arre-dondo for negligence. They also sued his [851]*851employer, KBC, for gross negligence, negligent entrustment, negligent hiring, and negligent supervision.

At trial, the jury found Arredondo and KBC negligent. It awarded Arevalo $10,000 for physical pain and mental anguish sustained in the past; $100,000 for physical pain and mental anguish that in reasonable probability will be sustained in the future; $10,000 for physical impairment sustained in the past; $50,000 for physical impairment that in reasonable probability will be sustained in the future; $94,000 for medical expenses incurred in the past; and $50,000 for medical expenses that in reasonable probability will be incurred in the future. The jury awarded Perez $5,000 for physical pain and mental anguish sustained in the past; $5,000 for physical impairment sustained in the past; and $24,000 in medical care expenses incurred in the past. The jury did not award Perez any damages for pain and mental anguish that in reasonable probability he will sustain in the future; for physical impairment that in reasonable probability he will sustain in the future; or for medical care expenses that in reasonable probability he will incur in the future. Nor did the jury award any damages relating to Perez’s loss of earning capacity. The jury also found KBC grossly negligent and awarded exemplary damages in the amount of $1,000,000. However, because the trial court determined no evidence supported the jury’s finding of gross negligence against KBC, it signed a judgment notwithstanding the verdict that omitted the jury’s award of $1,000,000 for gross negligence. On appeal, Perez and Arevalo argue the trial court erred in signing the JNOV because (1) the trial court violated Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 301, and (2) there was legally sufficient evidence to support the jury’s gross-negligence finding. Additionally, Perez argues the jury’s findings of zero damages with respect to his future pain and mental anguish, future physical impairment, and past and future loss of earning capacity are so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence that they are clearly wrong and unjust. We affirm.

I. Did the trial court err procedurally in signing the final judgment?

According to Perez and Arevalo, the trial court erred procedurally when it signed the JNOV. Perez and Arevalo claim the trial court violated Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 301 by disregarding “a material finding on its own initiative and in the absence of a pending motion to disregard and without the required notice, hearing, and ruling thereof." However, in reviewing the record, we conclude that the trial court did not sign the JNOV in violation of Rule 301.

A. Procedural Background

Following the jury’s verdict, Perez moved for entry of final judgment and attached a proposed judgment. At a hearing on April 29, 2013, immediately after announcing, KBC and Arredondo lodged objections to the trial court signing the proposed judgment submitted by Perez. Specifically, KBC argued there was legally and factually insufficient evidence to support the proposed judgment. KBC also explained that chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code limited the amount of exemplary damages that could be awarded. In response, Perez argued there was sufficient evidence to support a gross-negligence finding. Likewise, Arevalo argued there was sufficient evidence to support the gross-negligence finding. Arevalo then discussed how chapter 41’s cap on exemplary damages applied to the case. At the end of argument, the trial court stated:

I thought that this hearing was going to be mainly about gross negligence. I [852]*852reluctantly allowed it thinking that the jury would not go with gross negligence. I could have been wrong. So I — I was planning to revisit my decision on allowing the gross — gross negligence. And that’s what I’m going to do first before I — I—I accept any argument on — on the limitations. The — I think the suggestion on — on the costs, it easily could be worked around by the attorneys. I don’t want to get into all the calculations of court costs. Either we leave it blank and — and let the — the clerk decide what the court costs are the way they usually do, because I’ve never been asked to set a figure on court costs, exact figure, other than just say who pays court costs. If you want to brief me on gross negligence, you got to do it within seven days so I can get back to you quick, because I — I do plan to revisit my decision on gross negligence. So until I hear — you hear from me, then just don’t cash the check yet.

The parties then filed briefs regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s gross-negligence finding. At a second hearing on May 24, 2013, the trial court stated:

The — sometimes when I — when I — I’m faced with an issue like that and I can go either way, I let the jury to see what the jury’s going to do. And the jury didn’t go the way I thought it was — they were — they were going to go. But frankly, in talking to the Plaintiffs, I — I don’t see how the evidence that I heard will sustain gross negligence damages. But I did it this way because if I’m wrong, on your appeal, I can be reversed. If I went the other way and not submitted the question, then we’d have another trial. So, I’m trying to save money, hopefully, there: So everything that — -that—every objection that you raised, Mr. Gonzalez [defense counsel], I think I’m denying except the gross negligence. I agree with you that there was not. enough evidence to justify a gross negligence submission. But I think that that solves the problem as to whether you have to — to plead the — the—the gross negligence limits or not. Anything else that you neéd for me to make a ruling on?

Perez then argued that the jury’s zero-damages findings regarding his future damages were not supported by sufficient evidence. When the trial court stated that it was ready to sign Perez’s proposed judgment without the award regarding gross negligence, Perez objected, stating that every party should receive “three days notice to actually see what the actual judgment is going to look like before the judge signs it.” According to Perez, he wanted his appellate lawyer to have a chance to look at the proposed judgment. The trial court agreed to allow the parties to have more time to review the proposed judgment. It was decided that KBC would prepare and submit a proposed judgment and the court would hold yet another hearing.

On June 4, 2013, KBC filed a motion to disregard certain jury findings, arguing the evidence was legally insufficient to support the jury’s gross-negligence finding against it. On June 26, 2013, the trial court held another hearing and then signed the final judgment, which did not include an award for gross negligence. Perez then filed a motion for new trial, arguing that the jury’s zero-damages findings against him were so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust and that the jury’s gross-negligence finding was supported by sufficient evidence.

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452 S.W.3d 847, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 12923, 2014 WL 6864817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-ray-perez-and-rhonda-lee-arevalo-v-arturo-zepeda-arredondo-cusa-texapp-2014.