Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. Pillow

268 S.W.2d 716, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2607
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 14, 1954
Docket15513
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 268 S.W.2d 716 (Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. Pillow) 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 Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. Pillow, 268 S.W.2d 716, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2607 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

RENFRO, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case. Judgment was rendered in favor of appel-lee, Bill Pillow, for total and permanent disability. Appellant, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association, has appealed.

Appellee has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground the appeal bond was not timely filed. Appellant’s amended motion for new trial was filed on October 23, 1953, and presented on the 30th of October. The order overruling the amended motion begins, “On this the 30 day of October, 1953, * * No other date is shown in the body of the order or elsewhere on the. order. An appeal bond was filed with the clerk on December 7, 1953.

The appellee takes the position that the date of October 30, 1953, being stated in the order, it is conclusively shown to have been signed and rendered on that date. We find in the transcript, however, an instrument designated Court’s Bill of Exception No. 1,” in which the trial court certifies that the amended motion for new trial was presented on October 30th and thereafter on the 12th of November, 1953, the order overruling the motion was signed by the court.

Rule 306a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, directs judgments, decisions and orders of any kind to be reduced to writing and signed by the trial judge and the date of signing stated therein, and further provides that in determining time within which the various steps of an appeal must he taken, the date of rendition of a judgment or order, shall be deemed to be the date upon which the written draft thereof was signed by the trial judge, and that this rule shall apply in determining the time within which to file an appeal bond.

Rule 356 provides that whenever bond for costs is required the bond shall be filed with the clerk within thirty days after the date of rendition of judgment or order overruling the motion for new trial.

Under provisions of Rule 316, mistakes in the record of any judgment or decree may be amended by the judge in Open court, according to the truth or justice of the case, after notice of the application therefor has been given to the parties interested.

The judge certified in the bill of exception that same had been presented to counsel for both sides and found by them to be correct. There is no contention on the part of appellee that the order was not actually signed on November 12, 1953. There can be no question but that the trial judge could have corrected the original order by adding the true date on which it was signed. Alamo Casualty Co. v. Trafton, Tex.Civ.App., 228 S.W.2d 195.

The order in question does not conclusively show that it was signed on October 30th, there being no recitation that it was rendered and signed on said date.

We hold that the trial judge was authorized to show the actual date upon which the *719 order was signed. 25 Tex.Jur., p. 528. We overrule the motion to dismiss.

In its first two points of error, the appellant contends the court erred in submitting special issue No. 8, and the preamble thereto contained in.special issue No. 5, for the reason that same constitutes a conditional submission of the defensive issue of temporary total disability, and in submitting special issue No. 9 and the preamble thereto contained in special issue No. 8, for the reason that the same constitutes a conditional submission of the issue of duration of temporary total disability.

Issue No. 5 reads: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the Plaintiff sustained any total disability following the injury, if any, inquired about in Special Issue No. 2?” Then the jury was informed that if they answered issue No. 5 “No,” they need not answer issues Nos. 6, 7 and 8, but if No. 5 was answered “Yes,” then answer Nos. 6, 7 and 8. Issue No. 6 inquired if the injury was a producing cause of the total disability, if any, sustained by the plaintiff. No. 7 inquired as to the beginning date’of such total disability, and No. 8 reads: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such total disability, if any, inquired about in Special Issue No. 5, has been or will be permanent or has been or will be temporary?” Issue No. 9 required the jury, from a preponderance of the evidence, to find the duration of temporary total disability, if any, after having been instructed that if they answered issue No. 8 “Permanent,” they need not answer No. 9, but if they answered issue No. 8 “Temporary,” they should answer No. 9. Issues Nos. 5 and 6 were answered “Yes”; issue No. 7 was answered “Dec. 7, 1952”; and No. 8 was answered “Permanent.”

In Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Foreman, Tex.Civ.App., 236 S.W.2d 824, the question raised by appellant therein was substantially the same as raised to the court’s charge in this case. The Court of Civil Appeals held that the issues were properly submitted. In Foreman v. Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n, 150 Tex. 468, 241 S.W.2d 977, the Supreme Court, in reversing the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals on other grounds, expressly agreed with the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals wherein it held that respondent was not deprived of the unconditional submission of issues as to partial .incapacity and temporary incapacity.

This court in Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Tate, Tex.Civ.App., 214 S.W.2d 877, 879, held in construing a similar set of issues: “* * * We can find no error in the fact that the'issues of permanent and temporary disability were submitted disjunctively in the same question, nor can we find any error, either under the present rules or under any decision under the former statutes [preceding Rule 277], in submitting both inquiries conditionally .on an affirmative answer to issue No. 5. * *”

Under the authority of the foregoing cases and Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Huntsman, Tex.Civ.App., 125 S.W.2d 431; Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Bradfute, Tex.Civ.App., 229 S.W.2d 891; Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Cooper, Tex.Civ.App., 194 S.W.2d 819; and Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Hodnett, Tex.Civ.App., 216 S.W.2d 301, we overrule the points of error.

.Appellant’s point No. 3 contends the court erred in submitting 'special issue No. 8 for the reason that it failed to place the burden of proof on the plaintiff to show that total disability was permanent. It is argued that the defendant was entitled to have the jury instructed, in the event the answer of “permanent” was not supported by a preponderance of the evidence, that the answer should be “temporary.”

■By Rule 277, the court is expressly authorized in a workmen’s compensation case to submit in one issue whether the injured employee is permanently or only temporarily disabled. The issue did not have to be submitted both in the affirmative and in the negative.

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268 S.W.2d 716, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-ins-assn-v-pillow-texapp-1954.