Telesis/Parkwood Retirement I, Ltd. v. Anderson

462 S.W.3d 212, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677, 2015 WL 1285265
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 20, 2015
DocketNo. 08-13-00029-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 462 S.W.3d 212 (Telesis/Parkwood Retirement I, Ltd. v. Anderson) 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
Telesis/Parkwood Retirement I, Ltd. v. Anderson, 462 S.W.3d 212, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677, 2015 WL 1285265 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

YVONNE T. RODRIGUEZ, Justice

Appellants, Telesis/Parkwood Retirement I, Ltd, Telesis/Parkwood Retirement, Inc., Telesis Management Corporation, Party doing business as Parkwood Retirement Community (Parkwood), and Party doing business as The Telesis Company (collectively, “Telesis” or “Parkwood”), appeal a final judgment upon a jury’s verdict finding Telesis’ gross negligence harmed Appellee, Edna Anderson, and awarding Edna compensatory and exemplary damages.1 We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Edna filed suit against Telesis alleging that on July 5, 2008, when she was 95 years’ old, she collapsed in the shower area of her apartment at Parkwood Retirement Community, which is an independent-retirement community owned, controlled, and managed by Telesis. In her pleadings, Edna alleged that she was unable to get up and repeatedly pulled the cord on her apartment’s emergency call system. Because no one from Parkwood responded to her calls and no one inquired about Edna’s whereabouts or condition when she failed to appear for her daily mid-day meal at Parkwood on July 6, 2008, Edna remained on the floor of her apartment, naked, without food or water, and eventually in her own waste. Edna alleged that on the evening of July 6, 2008, she pulled a telephone from a desk, striking and injuring her head, and used the telephone to seek help from her family. Edna was hospitalized with injuries and [222]*222diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition alleged to have resulted from these events.

In her suit against Telesis, Edna presented theories of negligence and premises liability, gross negligence and malice, misrepresentation, breaches of warranty, and product liability. Edna alleged injury and sought compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to other relief. The case proceeded to trial, and before the case was submitted to the jury, the trial court granted Telesis’ motion for directed verdict on Edna’s premises liability, negligent misrepresentation, and product liability causes of action, and denied the motion on her claims of negligence, gross negligence and malice, and breaches of warranty. The trial court charged the jury on Edna’s theories of negligence and gross negligence. The jury found Telesis’ negligence proximately caused Edna’s injuries • and awarded her compensatory damages totaling $636,517.03. The jury also found by clear and convincing evidence that Edna’s harm resulted from Telesis’ gross negligence, and awarded Edna $1,680,000 in exemplary damages. The trial court entered judgment on the jury’s findings in favor of Edna and against the Telesis defendants, jointly and severally, and awarded Edna $636,517.03 in compensatory damages but reduced the exemplary damage award to $587,217.24.

DISCUSSION

Telesis raises eighteen issues challenging the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury’s findings related to negligence and gross negligence. In addressing its issues, we employ these standards of review as well as those set out hereafter.

Standards of Review

Whereas we provide a more deferential review of factual determinations, we review legal determinations de novo. Reliance Nat. Indent. Co. v. Advance'd Temporaries, Inc., 227 S.W.3d 46, 50 (Tex.2007). When addressing a challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s findings, we review the entire record, credit favorable evidence if reasonable jurors could, and disregard contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not. City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 822, 827 (Tex.2005); Henson v. Reddin, 358 S.W.3d 428, 434 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2012, no pet.). We sustain a legal sufficiency challenge when, among other things, the offered evidence to establish a vital fact does not exceed a scintilla. Kroger v. Texas Ltd. Partnership v. Suberu, 216 S.W.3d 788, 793 (Tex.2006), citing City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 810. “When the evidence offered to prove a vital fact is so weak as to do no more-than create a mere surmise or suspicion of its existence, the evidence is no more than a scintilla and, in legal effect, is no evidence.” Jelinek v. Casas, 328 S.W.3d 526, 532 (Tex.2010), quoting Kindred v. Con/Chem, Inc., 650 S.W.2d 61, 63 (Tex.1983). If more 'than a scintilla of evidence exists to support the jury’s findings, the evidence is legally sufficient. Anything more than a scintilla of evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury’s finding. Cont’l Coffee Prods. Co. v. Cazarez, 937 S.W.2d 444, 450 (Tex.1996). More than a scintilla of evidence exists when the evidence supporting the finding, as a whole, would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc. v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex.1997). Evidence that allows only one inference may not be disregarded by jurors or a reviewing court. City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 822.

When reviewing a challenge to the factual sufficiency of the evidence to support [223]*223the jury’s findings, we consider all the evidence and set aside the judgment only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1986). We must examine both the evidence supporting and that contrary to the judgment. See Dow Chem. Co. v. Francis, 46 S.W.3d 237, 241 (Tex.2001).

Under either type of challenge, the jury is the sole judge of the weight and credibility of the evidence, and is entitled to resolve any conflicts in the evidence and to choose which testimony to believe. City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 819. We therefore assume that jurors decided questions of credibility or conflicting evidence in favor of the verdict if they reasonably could do so. Id. at 819-20. We do not substitute our judgment for that of the jurors if the evidence falls within this zone of reasonable disagreement. Id. at 822.

We review an assertion that the trial court erred in submitting or refusing to submit a particular instruction to the jury under an abuse of discretion standard of review. Thota v. Young, 366 S.W.3d 678, 687 (Tex.2012), citing In re V.L.K., 24 S.W.3d 338, 341 (Tex.2000). We will not reverse a judgment for a charge error unless the error was harmful because it probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment or probably prevented the petitioner from properly presenting the case to the appellate courts. Tex. R.App. P. 44.1(a); Thota, 366 S.W.3d at 687.

Elements of Negligence

A negligence action requires “a legal duty owed by one person to another, a breach of that duty, and damages proximately caused by the breach.” Nabors Drilling, U.S.A., Inc. v. Escoto, 288 S.W.3d 401, 404 (Tex.2009) (citations omitted). “Liability is grounded in the public policy behind the law of negligence which dictates every person is responsible for injuries which are the reasonably foreseeable consequence of his act or omission.” El Chico Corp. v.

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Bluebook (online)
462 S.W.3d 212, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677, 2015 WL 1285265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/telesisparkwood-retirement-i-ltd-v-anderson-texapp-2015.