Teel v. Potter

523 S.W.2d 320, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2651
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 24, 1975
DocketNo. 813
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 523 S.W.2d 320 (Teel v. Potter) 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
Teel v. Potter, 523 S.W.2d 320, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2651 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

McKAY, Justice.

This suit was instituted by appellant, Lee Teel, individually and as administrator of the estate of James Lee Teel, deceased, to recover damages because of the death of James Lee Teel as provided by the, wrongful death statute, Art. 4675, Vernon’s Ann. Tex.Civ.St. and in his capacity as administrator to recover damages under Art. 5525, V.A.T.S., commonly referred to as the survivor statute. The damages for which recovery was sought arose as the result of personal injuries suffered by James Lee Teel in an automobile-truck collision on April 14, 1970, which personal injuries in turn resulted in the death of James Lee Teel on May 11, 1970. The Court, after considering the answers to the special issues, rendered a take-nothing judgment in favor of the appellees. We affirm.

James Lee Teel, hereinafter called Teel, age 22 and Elton W. Potter, hereinafter called Potter, age 16, were casual friends in the town of Tenaha, Texas. On the night of April 13, 1970, after driving around their home town of Tenaha, for awhile, they decided about 10 p. m. to drive over to Nacogdoches, where they went into a cafe, played some pool and drank “some amount of beer.” At all times during the evening of April 13, 1970, and the morning of April 14, 1970, the vehicle in which Teel was riding was driven by Elton W. Potter. At approximtely 12:45 a. m. on the morning of April 14th, Potter and Teel decided to return to Tena-ha. While driving within the city limits of Nacogdoches, a police car began to follow the Potter car. Potter testified he was driving within the speed limit, but that his car made excessive noise, and that the first knowledge he had of the police car was when Teel told him it was there and urged him to run from the officers to avoid arrest. Potter, in an effort to elude the police, began to increase the speed of his vehicle up to 110-120 m. p. h. Approximately i/2 mile north of the Nacogdoches city limits, with the police still in pursuit, the Potter vehicle struck the front of a truck and trailer driven by appellee John Fields and owned by appellee Melton Truck Lines, Inc., as it began to enter the highway after being parked at a service station. Upon impact, Teel was thrown from the automobile in which he was a passenger, and suffered the injuries which form the basis of this controversy. Appellant sought recovery from four defendants: Melton Truck Lines, Inc., John Fields, Elton W. Potter and his father, Homer J. Potter. This appeal is perfected against only Elton W. Potter and Homer J. Potter.

[323]*323In response to special issues1 the jury-found that Potter failed to keep a proper lookout (1), that such was gross negligence (2), and a proximate cause of the accident (3). The jury further found Potter grossly negligent in driving his motor vehicle at an excessive rate of speed (4) and such negligence to be a proximate cause of the accident (5). Teel was found not to have been negligent (25), (28), but was found to have engaged in a contest of speed. Further, based upon the testimony of Teel’s fiance at the time of the accident, who testified that Potter told her that “if he had stopped like Jimmy asked him, the accident wouldn’t have happened,” the jury found in special issues 18 and 31 that Teel did not advise Potter to engage in a contest of speed or to drive at a greater rate of speed than an ordinary prudent person in the same situation. The Court, in interpreting the verdict, determined that Teel’s having engaged in a contest of speed violated Art. 795 P.C. (repealed in 1971) 2 and was contributory negligence as a matter of law.

Appellant presents twenty-six points of error, the majority of which concern the submission of special issues 17, 21 and 27. (See footnote 1).

Appellant contends in his first six points that the Court erred in entering judgment based on issues 17, 21 and 27 because each is immaterial, evidentiary and not an ultimate controlling issue and should not have been submitted. No objections were made to the charge as submitted to the jury. Rule 272, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, requires that objections to the charge not presented to the court in writing “shall be consiaered as waived.” There being no objection to these issues, these points are waived.

Points of error 7 through 15 are somewhat interrelated and in the interest of clarity will be discussed together. Appellant complains in points 7-9 that issues 17, 21 and 27 should not have been submitted, but even though submitted, were rendered immaterial by the findings to the other issues submitted. Appellant waived any objection to the submission of these issues by failing to object in the trial court. Ap[324]*324pellant argues, however, that because the jury found Teel did not advise Potter (18) to engage in a contest of speed nor urge him (31) to drive negligently, and because Teel was not found to have failed to keep a proper lookout (25), then issues 17, 21 and 27 are immaterial. We disagree. The issues concerned here go to the heart of the controversy. A response to them was necessary to determine the involvement, if any, of Teel in the actions that caused his death. The only issue that could have rendered these findings immaterial would be a finding that Teel involuntarily engaged in the contest of speed. The only issues regarding the voluntariness of Teel were issues 23 and 24.

Points of error 10-15 involve special issues 23 and 24 in that they complain of the court’s basing its judgment on issues 17 and 21 because (1) there is no finding by the jury that James Lee Teel willfully or voluntarily engaged in a contest of speed; (2) the jury was allowed to return an affirmative answer even if Teel’s engaging in the contest of speed was involuntary and (3) the answers to these issues, when considered in conjunction with the phraseology of the issues, are so ambiguous as to make it impossible to ascertain whether the jury was finding Teel voluntarily engaged in a contest of speed. Appellant states in his brief before this court that the facts sought to be determined by these issues (17, 21 and 27) are uncon-troverted and admitted. Appellant does, however, argue that the relevant question to be determined is whether Teel was voluntarily engaged in the contest of speed. We agree that voluntariness is a necessary element in the determination of Teel’s possible culpability. In Parrott v. Garcia, 436 S.W.2d 897 (Tex.1969) the court held that voluntary participation in a drag race on a public highway was a violation of Art. 795 (V.A.P.C.) and constituted negligence or contributory negligence per se. Therefore, if Teel was at the time of the accident, engaged in the act of racing and was thereby involved in the voluntary and unexcused participation in the violation of Art. 795, such act constitutes negligence per se. Rogers v. Murrell, 467 S.W.2d 642 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo, 1971, dismissed); Shaver v. Manziel, 347 S.W.2d 20 (Tex.Civ.App.—Texarkana, 1961, n.r.e.).

Special issues 23 and 24 inquired as to whether Teel voluntarily exposed himself to injury by engaging in the contest of speed and whether he was so engaged as the result of an intelligent choice on his part. However, a jury response to these issues was conditioned upon an affirmative answer to issue No. 22 which asked whether Teel knew of the danger of injury in engaging in a contest of speed with the Na-cogdoches police officers.

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Bluebook (online)
523 S.W.2d 320, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 2651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/teel-v-potter-texapp-1975.