Stedman Fruit Co. v. Smith

45 S.W.2d 804
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 24, 1931
DocketNo. 2171
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 45 S.W.2d 804 (Stedman Fruit Co. v. Smith) 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
Stedman Fruit Co. v. Smith, 45 S.W.2d 804 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

WALKER, J.

This is a companion case with Stedman Fruit Company v. Smith (Tex. Civ. App.) 28 S.W.(2d) 622, to which reference is made for a detailed statement of the facts of the accident resulting in the damages sued for.

By its first proposition, appellant asserts that the form of issue No. 16, submitting unavoidable accident, was error.

Issue No. 16. “Do you find, from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff’s injuries (if any) were the result of an unavoidable accident, as that term has been heretofore defined to you?”

Rosenthal v. Hillebrandt (Tex. Civ. App.) 299 S. W. 668, affirmed on this point by the Commission of Appeals, 7 S.W.(2d) 521, condemns this issue as reversible error. See, also, Texas Electric Railway Co. v. Scott (Tex. Civ. App.) 21 S.W.(2d) 25; U. S. Torpedo Co. v. Huff (Tex. Civ. App.) 41 S.W.(2d) 297, and West Texas Trans. Co. v. Hash (Tex. Civ. App.) 43 S.W.(2d) 152. Appellee does not deny the force of these authorities, but would defend her charge by the following counter propositions:

(a) It is contended that the exceptions to the charge were not sufficient to direct the trial court’s attention to this error. The exception was as follows; “The court erred in improperly putting the burden of proof upon the defendant in Special Issues Nos. 1, 2, 3, 16, 17 and 18, and the defendant now moves the court properly to instruct the jury as to the burden of proof in each of said issues.”

The language of this exception directly advised the court that it was error to put the burden of this issue on appellant. But because the court gave the following definition of “burden of proof,” appellee says the exception should have been more specific and pointed out wherein the burden of proof on issue No. 16 was error.

“By burden of proof is meant that the person upon whom such burden rests must prove the fact in issue' by the preponderance of the evidence, that is, by the greater weight of the credible testimony introduced in the case.”

We think this charge rather emphasized the error in this issue, in that appellant specially plead unavoidable accident as a defense. With this special plea before them, the jury were probably led to believe, under this charge, that appellant had assumed the burden of its proof. When raised by the evidence, the burden is always on the plaintiff to show by the preponderance of the evidence that his damages did not result from an unavoidable accident; and that this issue was pleaded by the defendant as a special defense does not change the rule. U. S. Torpedo Co. v. Huff, supra; Rosenthal Dry Goods Co. v. Hillebrandt, supra.

(b) It is insisted that the exception is multifarious. There is no rule striking down exceptions to the charge on this ground. A general exception should not be leveled at the charge as a whole, but exceptions must be specific, and direct the court’s attention to the parts of the charge complained of. This question was before us in Ineeda Laundry v. Newton (Tex. Civ. App.) 33 S.W.(2d) 208. The appellant in that case so worded its exception on this point, that it applied to all of the charge, and sought to brief the exception so far only as it had application to five of the special issues. Overruling the exception we [806]*806said: “In order to constitute error, it was necessary that appellant call the trial court’s attention, by exception, to the particular questions deemed by it defective."

The exception before us falls reasonably within this rule. On this point, appellee, says further that this exception was misleading .and confusing because it was directed against issues Nos. 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, and 18, while only question No. 16 was error. We do not think so. All these issues were challenged. It was the duty of the trial court to test each issue by this exception and if, in his judgment, no error was pointed out, to overrule the exception; but if error was pointed out as to any one of the exceptions, to correct the error. We do not mean by this to say that the complaining party can thus challenge in one exception all the issues submitted to the jury. Such an exception might fall within the condemnation of the Newton Case. But where, as in this case, the complaining party excepts to certain issues upon a specific ground, it is not etror to- group them in one exception. This exception, as worded, was as potent to direct the court’s attention to the error complained of as if a separate exception had been reserved to each of these specific issues. As supporting this argument, appellee cites Merchants’ Ice Co. v. Scott & Dodson (Tex. Civ. App.) 186 S. W. 418; Hovey v. Sanders (Tex. Civ. App.) 174 S. W. 1025; Landrum v. Thomas (Tex. Civ. App.) 149 S. W. 813; Longworth v. Stevens (Tex. Civ. App.) 145 S. W. 259; Railway Co. v. Neff (Tex. Civ. App.) 26 S. W. 784; Yarborough v. Weaver, 6 Tex. Civ. App. 215, 25 S. W. 468. But these cases merely hold that instructions requested en masse should be refused by the trial court, if any one of them has been substantially given in the main charge, or if any one of those requested en masse should have been refused. She says the same rules should govern exceptions to the charge as govern the giving of special instructions ; and where the exception groups several issues, as in this case, it should be overruled unless all the issues are alike subject to ■the exception. What' we have said above overrules this contention.

(c) Appellee is in error in her counter proposition that a charge placing the burden of proof of this issue upon her would advise the jury of the legal effect of the answer thereto. Holding against this construction, in Federal Surety Co. v. Smith, 41 S.W.(2d) 210, 214, the Commission of Appeals said: “In view of the frequency with which we are called upon to determine the correctness of the form of special issues, we desire to suggest that the least objectionable method of procedure is for the trial court to propound the question to be submitted in the form, ‘Do you find from the preponderance of the evidence that’ (following with the question to be determined), so framing the question, upon each issue, as to place the burden of proof where it properly belongs.”

(d) It was not necessary that appellant tender with its exceptions a correct charge or issue. The exception, specifically calling the court’s attention to the error in the charge, was sufficient to save the point. Capitol Hotel Company v. Rittenberry (Tex. Civ. App.) 41 S.W.(2d) 697.

We overrule appellant’s exceptions to the trial court’s definitions of unavoidable accident and contributory negligence. These definitions were before us in Stedman Fruit Co. v. Smith, supra, and were expressly approved.

Special Issue No. 18 was as follows: “From the preponderance, what do you find to be the difference between the reasonable market value of plaintiff’s automobile immediately before the collision and its reasonable market value immediately after the collision and before it was repaired (if there was any difference) ?”

There is no merit in the exception that this question assumed that there was a difference in the market value of the car immediately before and immediately after the accident. Under all the evidence, the car was injured in the collision, and therefore there was, as a matter of law, a difference in the market value. The rule is that issues established by undisputed facts present questions of law for decision by the court and not fact issues for the jury, and, for that reason, should not be submitted to the jury. Stedman Fruit Co. v. Smith, supra; Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Beck (Tex. Civ.

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45 S.W.2d 804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stedman-fruit-co-v-smith-texapp-1931.