Schuhmacher Co. v. Shooter

94 S.W.2d 484, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 523
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 24, 1936
DocketNo. 10183.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 94 S.W.2d 484 (Schuhmacher Co. v. Shooter) 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
Schuhmacher Co. v. Shooter, 94 S.W.2d 484, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 523 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

LANE, Justice.

This suit was instituted by Mrs. Mary R. Shooter, a widow, against the Schuh-macher Company, a corporation, in the district court of Waller county, Tex., for the recovery of damages because of personal injuries sustained by her and because of the death of her two daughters, Anabel Shooter and Beatrice Shooter, alleged to have resulted from the negligence of the Schuh-macher Company and its agent in the operation of an automobile truck on the public highway in Waller county, Tex., the plaintiff below alleging that she and her deceased daughter Beatrice Shooter were riding as passengers in an automobile belonging to and then being operated by her deceased daughter Anabel Shooter, in an easterly direction on state highway No. 20 in Waller county, when the automobile mentioned was struck by the truck of the - Schuhmacher Company, then being operated by its agent in a westerly direction on such highway, the plaintiff below alleging that the driver of such truck was guilty of negligence in the operation thereof in various particulars, and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the collision and of the injuries sustained by her and of the death of her two daughters. The plaintiff below sought to recover $20,000 because of the personal injuries sustained by her, the sum of $14,000 because of the loss of the contributions that would have been made to her by her daughter Anabel Shooter, the sum of $7,200 because of the loss of the services of her daughter Beatrice Shooter, and the sum of $300 expended by her for medical treatment, aggregating the sum of $41,500.

Though there was an obvious misjoinder of causes of action, no plea of misjoinder was filed or urged by the defendant below.

The defendant below, answered by general denial, by a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, Mrs. Mary R. Shooter, by a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the deceased Anabel Shooter, and by a plea of contributory negligence on the part of the deceased Beatrice Shooter, by a plea of joint enterprise upon the part of the plaintiff and her deceased daughters, and by a plea of unavoidable accident.

The cause was tried before a jury, to which the court submitted a number of special issues, in answer to which the jury found that the defendant’s truck was being operated at a speed in excess of 25 miles per hour immediately prior to the collision; that such speed was a proximate cause of the collision; that the defendant’s truck was being operated on the lefthand, or south side, of the center of the highway immediately prior to the collision; that this was a proximate cause of the collision; that the driver of the truck was operating it at a time when his left foot was resting upon the left step or running board of the truck, and that this was negligence and a proximate cause of the collision; that Mrs. Mary R. Shooter, the plaintiff, was entitled to $2,-000 because of her personal injuries; that she was entitled to $3,600 because of the death of her daughter Anabel Shooter, and that she was entitled to $2,400 because of the death of her daughter Beatrice Shooter; that Anabel Shooter, the driver of the automobile, was not operating her automobile at a speed in excess of 45 miles an hour just prior to the collision, nor was she operating the same at a speed greater than a reasonably prudent person would have operated same under the same or similar circumstances, just prior to the collision; that Anabel Shooter did not drive her automobile on her left-hand side of the highway at the time of the collision.

Upon the verdict óf the jury and the evidence, the court tendered judgment for the plaintiff against the corporation for the sum of $8,000, together with interest and cost of suit.

From such judgment the corporation has appealed and presents 80 assignments of error.

By its first proposition, appellant contends for a reversal of the judgment upon the following grounds: “The suit out of which this appeal grows having been instituted by Mrs. Mary R. Shooter in part to recover damages because of the death of her daughter, Beatrice Shooter, and it being developed by the evidence upon the trial that Mary R. Shooter was not the only beneficiary of the deceased Beatrice Shooter under the Death Statute of the State of Texas but that Beatrice Shooter had left a *486 minor child who was not a party to the suit and for whose benefit the suit was in no manner brought, it became manifest as a matter of record that a necessary and indispensable party in the person of such minor child was missing from the action and no judgment could be entered therein disposing of the interests of all necessary parties, and hence the trial court erred in refusing to set aside the judgment rendered in the cause and grant a new trial so that the interests of all necessary parties could be disposed of.”

We overrule appellant’s contention. Plaintiff, Mrs. Mary Shooter, by the allegations of her petition sought to recover damages for several separate items: (1) For her own personal injuries; (2) for the loss of contributions from her daughter Anabel; and (3) for the loss of contributions from her daughter Beatrice. Separate sums were alleged and prayed for with reference tp each item of damage. The issues relative to the elements and amounts of damages were presented to the jury in separate and distinct issues. The jury answered the issues separately, finding $2,000 for the plaintiff’s personal injuries, $3,600 for the loss of Anabel Shooter’s contributions, and $2,400 for the death of Beatrice Shooter, who was prbved during the trial-to have left a minor child.

The several separate amounts of damages alleged by the plaintiff having been separately alleged and the same having been submitted to the jury in separate issues, and the child of Beatrice having a cause of action only because of the death of its mother, the failure to join the child as a party plaintiff, or otherwise, constitutes a cause for reversal only of that part of the judgment decreeing a recovery for the death of Beatrice Shooter.

It is conceded by appellee that the judgment of the trial court, in so far as it allowed the plaintiff a recovery for damages resulting from the death of her daughter Beatrice, should be reversed and remanded. In other words, the judgment to the extent of $2,400, and the cause in so far as it affects the plaintiff’s efforts to recover for the death of Beatrice Shooter, should be reversed and remanded so that the child may be joined with the plaintiff herein as a party plaintiff and as all the survivors who have a legal right to sue because of the death of Beatrice Shooter. But plaintiff says, however, that the child of Beatrice has no interest whatever in the damages arising from the death of its aunt, Anabel Shooter, nor in the damages suffered by her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Shooter, as the result of the collision in question.

It being conceded by appellee that so much of the judgment as awarded to her $2,400 damages for the death of her daughter Beatrice, mother of the child, should be reversed and remanded, such order will be made by this court.

It is well settled that an appellate court may in its discretion reverse a judgment in part and affirm other parts thereof, where the issues are several. Gutheridge v. Gutheridge (Tex.Civ.App.) 161 S.W. 892, at page 896; Johnson v. Conger (Tex.Civ.App.] 166 S.W. 405, at page 407, column 2 [7]; Wichita Falls Comp. Co. v. Moody & Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 154 S.W. 1032, 1054; Galveston, H. & S. A. Ry. Co.

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Bluebook (online)
94 S.W.2d 484, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schuhmacher-co-v-shooter-texapp-1936.