Texas Drydock, Inc. v. Davis

997 S.W.2d 435, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6450, 1999 WL 651782
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 26, 1999
DocketNo. 09-97-326CV
StatusPublished

This text of 997 S.W.2d 435 (Texas Drydock, Inc. v. Davis) 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
Texas Drydock, Inc. v. Davis, 997 S.W.2d 435, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6450, 1999 WL 651782 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinions

OPINION

DON BURGESS, Justice.

Texas Drydock, Inc., appeals from a judgment in favor of Louis Davis, following a jury trial on Davis’s personal injury claim. Davis suffered an injury while working for his employer, Crumpler Shipbuilders, Inc., on a cherry picker crane owned by Texas Drydock. Texas Drydock presents four issues on appeal: (1) Did the trial court commit reversible error by rendering judgment for Davis since Davis presented no evidence that Texas Drydock had any control or right of control over the premises at the time of Davis’s alleged accident, thus producing no evidence of any legal duty owed to Davis?; (2) Did the trial court commit reversible error by rendering judgment for Davis after refusing Texas Drydock’s jury instruction and jury question on the issue of control, the critical issue necessary to any legal duty owed by [438]*438Texas Drydock, and submitting the case to the jury under an incorrect legal standard over Texas Drydock’s objections?; (3) Alternatively, did the trial court commit reversible error by rendering judgment for Davis, since Davis presented only, at best, a mere scintilla of evidence of control by Texas Drydock?; and (4) Even under the incorrect legal standard that was submitted, did the jury’s findings of 100% negligence on the part of Texas Drydock and zero negligence on the part of Davis have any support in the evidence or, alternatively, factually sufficient support in the evidence?

At the time of the incident in question, Crumpler Shipbuilding, Davis’s employer, maintained and repaired equipment for Texas Drydock. Davis was injured when he jumped from Texas Drydock’s cherry picker crane that he was repairing. Texas Drydock’s first issue concerns whether the trial court committed reversible error by rendering judgment for Davis since Davis presented no evidence that Texas Drydock had any control or right of control over the premises at the time Davis was injured, thereby producing no evidence of any legal duty Texas Drydock owed him.

When considering the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we consider only the evidence and inferences that tend to support the jury’s finding, and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. See Weirich v. Weirich, 833 S.W.2d 942, 945 (Tex.1992). If there exists any evidence to support the finding, the point will be overruled and the finding upheld. See Southern States Transp., Inc. v. State, 774 S.W.2d 639, 640 (Tex.1989). In reviewing a factual sufficiency point, we must weigh all of the evidence in the record. Ortiz v. Jones, 917 S.W.2d 770, 772 (Tex.1996). Findings may be overturned only if they are so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Id.

Davis asserted that Texas Drydock was liable based upon both a premises liability theory, as well as negligence based upon section 323 of the Restatement of Torts. The issue of control relates to any claim Davis might have based upon premises liability. Crumpler, Davis’s employer, is an independent contractor. A premises owner may be directly liable to an independent contractor’s employees under two general theories of premises liability: (1) negligence arising from an activity on the premises; and (2) negligence arising from a premises defect. See Clayton Williams, Jr., Inc. v. Olivo, 952 S.W.2d 523, 527 (Tex.1997) (involving premises defect theory) and Redinger v. Living, Inc., 689 S.W.2d 415, 417 (Tex.1985) (involving negligent activity theory). Under either theory, proof of the owner’s right of control is an explicit requirement. See Olivo, 952 S.W.2d at 528; Redinger, 689 S.W.2d at 418.

There are two subcategories under the premises defect theory: (1) defects existing on the premises when the independent contractor/invitee entered; and (2) defects the independent contractor created by its work activity. Coastal Marine Serv. of Tex., Inc. v. Lawrence, 988 S.W.2d 223, 225 (Tex.1999). “Under the first subcategory, the premises owner has a duty to inspect the premises and warn the independent contractor/invitee of dangerous conditions that are not open and obvious and that the owner knows or should have known exist.” Id.

When the dangerous condition arises as a result of the independent contractor’s work activity, the premises owner normally owes no duty to the independent contractor’s employees because an owner generally has no duty to ensure that an independent contractor performs its work in a safe manner. Id. A premises owner may be hable when it retains the right of supervisory control over work on the premises. Id. at 225-26. The right to control must be more than a general right to order work to stop and start, or to inspect progress. Id. at 226. The supervisory control must relate to the activity [439]*439that actually caused the injury, and grant the owner at least the power to direct the order in which work is to be done or the power to forbid it being done in an unsafe manner. Id.

A party can prove the right to control in two ways: first, by evidence of a contractual agreement that explicitly assigns the premises owner a right to control; and second, in the absence of a contractual agreement, by evidence that the premises owner actually exercised control over the job. Id.

In this case, no evidence was presented as to any contractual agreement between Crumpler and Texas Drydock that explicitly assigns Texas Drydock a right to control. However, there is some evidence that Texas Drydock exercised control by requiring that the cherry picker crane in question not be steam cleaned prior to its being repaired. The jury could reasonably have determined that it was negligent to impose such a requirement and that it was the failure to steam clean that proximately caused Davis’s injury. We hold that the evidence is legally sufficient to prove that Texas Drydock actually exercised some control over the work.

Texas Drydock also contends that the evidence is factually insufficient to prove that Texas Drydock retained any control. As we have noted, there was no evidence that Texas Drydock contractually retained control, but there was evidence that it actually exercised control. Texas Drydock refers us to extensive evidence, including evidence from Davis’s supervisor, to the effect that Crumpler maintained control over the work and that Texas Drydock did not have or exercise any control over the work. Davis’s supervisor denied telling Davis that he was not to steam clean the cherry picker crane or that Texas Drydock did not want it cleaned. Despite the conflicting testimony, however, we do not find that the jury’s verdict is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. We overrule the contentions presented in appellant’s issues numbers one and three.

Texas Drydock insists in issue two that the trial court committed reversible error by rendering judgment for Davis after refusing its jury question and instruction on the issue of control.

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Bluebook (online)
997 S.W.2d 435, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6450, 1999 WL 651782, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-drydock-inc-v-davis-texapp-1999.