Southern Underwriters v. Buxton

136 S.W.2d 264
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided January 11, 1940·No. No. 3585.·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This appeal was by writ of error, but the parties will be referred to as appellant and appellees. The action was by appellees, the surviving wife and children of Charles Wesley Buxton, for compensation for the death of the husband and father, under the provisions of our Workmen’s Compensation Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq. The case was tried to a jury. On motion of appellees, filed after the return of the verdict, judgment was entered in their favor against appellant for compensation for 360 weeks at $18.17 per week.

The jury found that Charles Wesley Bux-ton had worked in the employment in which he was working at the time he was injured substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding the injury; this was a submission and finding in appellees’ favor of subdivision 1 of Sec. 1 of Art. 8309, defining “average weekly wages.” Subdivisions 2 and 3 of the definition of average weekly wages were also submitted to the jury, but alternatively; that is, the jury was instructed not to answer question No. 10, submitting subdivision 2, provided they had answered in the affirmative question No. 8 submitting subdivision 1, and, likewise, the jury was instructed not to answer special issue No. 12, submitting the third subdivision of the definition, in the event question No. 10 was answered in appellees’ favor. Thus, on the verdict of the .jury there was a finding that Charles Wesley Buxton worked in the employment in which he was working at the time of the injury, substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding his injury, and there was no jury finding, under the instructions of the court, that any employee of the same class as Charles Wesley Buxton performed the same or similar work being performed by Charles Wesley Buxton, during substantially the entire year before Charles Wesley Buxton was injured, nor was there any finding of an average weekly wage that “would be fair and just” to both appellant and appellees.

The trial court made the following findings and entered the following order on ap-pellees’ motion to enter judgment non ob-stante veredicto: “And it further appearing to the Court that plaintiffs on the 10th day of March, 1939, duly filed in this Cause a proper motion to disregard the jury’s said findings upon Special Issues Nos. 8 and 9 on the ground that there was no evidence to raise such issues or to sustain the findings of the jury thereon, that said defendant, The Southern Underwriters, through its attorney, waived the service of reasonable notice of such motion as provided by law, and that on the hearing of such motion both parties came by their attorneys, and having heard and considered such motion, the evidence' and the argument of counsel, and being of the opinion that there was no evidence to raise -such issues, that the jury’s findings in answer thereto have no support in the evidence and that such motion should be granted, and the jury’s said findings on Special Issues Nos. 8 and 9 should be disregarded, it is accordingly ordered that said motion be and it is hereby granted and the said jury’s findings to Special Issues Nos. 8 and 9 be, and they are hereby disregarded. And it further appearing to the Court that there is no evidence in the record that there was *266 any employee of the same class as Charles Wesley Buxton who performed the same or similar work to that which Charles Wesley Buxton performed for Peoples Lumber and Supply Company on March 25, 1938, in Dayton, Texas, or vicinity, and there is no evidence to support such issue and no evidence to support a finding of the jury, and that uncontradicted and undisputed evidence establishes that there were no employees working substantially the entire year on March 25, 1938, in Dayton, Texas, or vicinity. And it further appearing to the Court that the only proper method from the evidence and the record for computing the average weekly wage of Charles Wesley Buxton would be under subdivision No. 3 of Article 8309, to-wit: said average weekly wage should be computed in any manner which' may seem just and fair to both parties, and the evidence uncontra-dicted and undisputed and of a nature to conclusively establish that Charles Wesley Buxton was earning a weekly wage and had a weekly income from the Peoples Lumber and Supply Company of $30.28 per week; that 60% thereof would be $18.17 per week. And the Court now finds this figure of $30.28 to be such a weekly wage as would be fair and just to both the plaintiffs and the defendant, The Southern Underwriters.”

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Southern Underwriters v. Buxton, 136 S.W.2d 264 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

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