Southern Steel Company v. Manning

513 S.W.2d 273
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 22, 1974
Docket5349
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 513 S.W.2d 273 (Southern Steel Company v. Manning) 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
Southern Steel Company v. Manning, 513 S.W.2d 273 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinions

OPINION

JAMES, Justice.

This is a case wherein the Plaintiff-Ap-pellee Tom B. Manning suffered personal injuries as a result of having been thrown from a jeep on a deer hunt. Manning sued Defendant-Appellant Southern Steel Co. for damages growing out of an accident which occurred on or about November IS, 1970 at about 4:30 A.M. in the dark, when Manning fell from the rear of a jeep taking a hunting party to deer blinds on Riverbend Ranch in Kerr County, Texas.

Trial was to a jury which found:

No. 1: An agent, servant, or employee of Southern Steel failed to properly latch the tailgate as would have been done by a person of ordinary prudence in the exercise of ordinary care under the same or similar circumstances.

No. 2: That such failure was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question.

No. 3: That Manning’s failure to have both feet inside of the jeep on the occasion in question was negligence.

No. 4: But failed to find it was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question.

No. 5: That immediately prior to the occasion in question Manning failed to hold onto the Jeep.

No. 6: That such failure was negligence.

No. 7: But failed to find it was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question.

No. 8: The jury failed to find that Manning failed to keep a proper lookout.

No. 9: Not answered, as it was conditionally submitted upon an affirmative answer to No. 8.

No. 10: The jury found $8,134.14 for past medical and hospital expenses.

No. 11: The jury found $33,600.00 for past and future pain and mental anguish, past lost earnings and loss of earning capacity in the future.

Based upon the jury verdict, the trial court awarded Plaintiff Manning a judgment against Defendant Southern Steel for $41,734.14, from which Southern Steel appeals.

Appellant asserts Plaintiff-Appellee has no pleading to authorize the submission of Special Issues Nos. 1 and 2. We overrule this contention. The pertinent pleadings of Plaintiff read as follows:

“II.
Plaintiff would show that on or about November 15, 1970, he was a business invitee of the defendant at the River-bend Ranch, near Hunt, in Kerr County, Texas, and at approximately 4:30 o’clock a. m. he was seriously injured as the result of an accident. Plaintiff was riding in the back of a 1957 Jeep pickup being operated by an employee of the defendant when the tailgate of said pickup came open and plaintiff fell to the ground.
“III.
The occurrence of November 15, 1970, which is made the basis of this suit, was proximately caused by the negligence of the defendant, its agents, servants and employees by the following acts of omission and/or commission:
(a) In failing to latch the tailgate.
[276]*276(b) In failing to warn plaintiff that the tailgate was unlatched.
Each and all of the foregoing acts of omission and/or commission were negligent and constituted negligence and were each and all, jointly and severally, a proximate cause of the injuries and damages sustained by plaintiff, Tom B. Manning.”
The trial court submitted Special Issue No. 1 as follows:
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that on the occasion in question an agent, servant or employee of Southern Steel Company failed to properly latch the tailgate as would have been done by a person of ordinary prudence in the exercise of ordinary care under the same or similar circumstances ?
Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not.’ ”
To this issue the jury answered, “We do.”

Special Issue No. 2 submitted proximate cause in the usual manner, which the jury answered in the affirmative.

In short, Plaintiff’s pleadings charged Defendant with having failed to latch the tailgate, whereas Special Issue No. 1 inquires whether Defendant failed to properly latch the tailgate. This pleading is manifestly sufficient to give the Defendant fair notice of what it is called upon to defend. See Rule 45, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. The trial court is not required in a special issue to follow the exact language of the pleading. McDonald, Texas Civil Practice, section 12.07; Texas Steel Co. v. Rockholt (Texarkana, Tex.Civ.App. 1940), 142 S.W.2d 842, writ refused; Green v. Walgreen Drug Co. (Beaumont, Tex.Civ.App.1963), 368 S.W.2d 688, error refused NRE.

Appellant attacks special issue No. 1 as being “global” and a general charge, and says it is not a finding as to any specific omission. We overrule this contention. See Hammer v. Dallas Transit Co. (Tex.Sup.Ct.1966), 400 S.W.2d 885. Moreover, at the time this case was tried (trial began September 4, 1973), Rule 277, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure as now amended and constituted, was in effect, said Rule as now constituted having gone into effect September 1, 1973. Under present Rule 277, Special Issue No. 1 could not possibly be subject to the objection that it is too broad, global, or a general charge.

Appellant further contends that Plaintiff failed to request and secure a finding that the matter inquired about in Special Issue No. 1 was within the “course and scope of employment” of the Defendant; and having failed to request and secure such finding, Plaintiff has waived Issues Nos. 1 and 2. In other words, Defendant-Appellant says the Plaintiff had the duty to secure a jury finding to the effect that Defendant’s agent, servant, or employee was acting within the scope of his employment when he failed to properly latch the tailgate; and having failed to secure such finding, Plaintiff has waived the jury’s finding to Special Issue No. 1. We do not agree. In the first place, we have carefully examined the Defendant’s pleadings and we cannot find any special exception bringing to the trial court’s attention a failure on the part of Plaintiff to allege that Defendant’s agent, servant, or employee was acting within the scope of his employment. Then in its objections to the court’s charge, Defendant made no objection to the failure of the trial court to submit an issue on whether or not Defendant’s agent, servant, or employee was acting in the scope of his employment. Under this state of the record, Defendant has waived this defense unless the contrary is conclusively established by the evidence. Such is not the case here. We will discuss the evidence later in this opinion, but suffice it to say at this time that there is nothing in the record to show that any of Defendant’s servants, agents and employees present at the time of the accident were not acting [277]*277within the scope of their respective employments. Rules 90, 279; Meacham v. Loving (1956), 155 Tex. 279, 285 S.W.2d 936. Even if the question were disputed in the evidence, Appellant urges this defense for the first time in his Motion for Judgment NOV and his Amended Motion for New Trial. This is too late. Special Issue No.

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Southern Steel Company v. Manning
513 S.W.2d 273 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
513 S.W.2d 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-steel-company-v-manning-texapp-1974.