Texas Employers' Ins. v. Pierce

254 S.W. 1019, 1923 Tex. App. LEXIS 556
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 16, 1923
DocketNo. 8839. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 254 S.W. 1019 (Texas Employers' Ins. v. Pierce) 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. v. Pierce, 254 S.W. 1019, 1923 Tex. App. LEXIS 556 (Tex. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

SAVAGE, Special Chief Justice.

C. F. Pierce, appellee, brought this suit in the district court of Hunt county against appellant, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association, to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board and for compensation on account of certain personal injuries alleged to have been received while performing service as an em-ployé of the. Gulf Pipe Line Company, which, he alleged, was a “subscriber” under the terms of the Texas Employers’ Liability Act (Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. Supp. 1918, arts. 5246 — 1 to 5246 — 91) and was a member of the Texas Employers’ Insurance Association. The petition alleged that Pierce had suffered total permanent incapacity as a result of said injury, and that he. would suffer manifest hardships and injustice unless the association were compelled to redeem its liability in a lump sum; that he was entitled to recover compensation at the rate of $15 per week for a period of 401 weeks; that on October 24, 1919, the Industrial Accident Board had made .its final ruling and decision; that he had given notice of his unwillingness to abide said' final ruling within 20 days, and within 20 days after giving said notice had filed suit to set aside said final ruling and decision.

Plaintiff prayed for judgment setting aside said final ruling and decision, and' for $6,-000 in a lump sum, for costs, etc.

Defendants, Texas •Employers’ Insurance Association, answered by general demurrer and general denial, and joined plaintiff in his prayer that the award be set aside.

The jury found in response to special issues submitted as follows: (1) That plaintiff suffered hernia or rupture as a result of the injury received by him; (2) that the hernia appeared suddenly and immediately following' the injury; (3) that the hernia did not exist in any degree before said injury; (4) that the injury was accompanied by pain; (5) that the plaintiff’s kidney was not injured at the time of and as a result of said accident; (6) that he received strain or other *1021 injury to his back as a result of the accident; (7) that he was incapacitated to work by reason of such injury; (8) that such incapacity was partial; (9) that such incapacity would continue 14 years; (9a) that he has been and-will be during the existence of said partial injury able to earn $1.75 per week; - (10) that manifest hardship and injustice would result to plaintiff if he were not permitted to recover such compensation, if any, as he was entitled in a lump sum; (11) that the incapacity, if any, complained of by plaintiff in his petition was proximately caused by the accident referred to in the pleadings.

On this verdict, judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for the sum of $1,806 as the compensation due him for 129 weeks at- $14 per week, for which execution was awarded, and for $2,158.03, which was $14 per week for 171 weeks, payable in weekly installments of $27.04 each for a period of 79.8 weeks.

It is urged by appellant that the record does not disclose that the trial court had jurisdiction; that, being an appeal from a final ruling and decision of the Industrial Accident Board awarding .compensation under the terms of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, a certified copy of said final ruling and decision should have been filed with the clerk of the court in which the suit was brought. Plaintiff’s petition sets out in quotations the ruling and decision of the Industrial Accident Board, also copy of notice served upon the Industrial Accident Board and the Texas Employers’ Insurance Association that he would not abide said final ruling and decision, giving the date of said ruling and decision and again quoting same. The defendant in its answer joined the prayer that the final ruling and decision of the Industrial Accident Board as set out in plaintiff’s original petition be set aside. The trial, when taken into court, is de novo. It is not considered an appeal, when a claimant, being unwilling to abide the final ruling of the board, resorts to the court. Lumbermen’s Reciprocal Ass’n v. Behnken (Tex. Civ. App.) 226 S. W. 154. There is no statute requiring anything in the nature of a transcript as in the appeal from the justice court. • Broad and liberal constructions are given to the Workmen’s Compensation Acts as remedial measures, in order that the humane purpose of their enactment may be realized. The pleading and record herein are sufficient to show that the court had jurisdiction.

Appellant urges that the judgment is fundamentally erroneous, because there was no jury finding as to appellee’s average weekly wages before the injury. There was no conflicting testimony as to his average weekly wages before the injury. The only testimony presented was that he had been making $5 per day, and same, when taken in connection with the finding of the jury as to his weekly wages during the existence of the injury, was a sufficient basis to compute the weekly compensation of the $14 per week.

The appellant assigns as error, first, that the court erred in' refusing to instruct the jury to return a verdict for appellant; and, second, that the court erred.in overruling its motion for a peremptory instruction, because .no competent evidence has been offered that at the time of the alleged injury to plaintiff the Gulf Pipe Line Company was a “subscriber” with appellant under the terms of the Employers’ Liability Act. (In the former appeal of this case, 230 S. W. 872, the Court of Civil Appeals held that a part of the award of the Industrial Accident Board reciting that said pipe line company was a “subscriber” was incompetent.)

In this trial plaintiff’s attorneys made every reasonable effort by depositions and other means to get the use of the policy or a copy of same for this trial.

The evidence shows that the policy of insurance was actually produced by the Gulf Pipe Line Company and introduced in evidence in a former trial. The secretary of the Industrial Accident Board testified by deposition that, “The fecords disclose the fact that the Texas Employers’ Insurance Association gave notice to the board that a compensation policy had been issued to the Gulf Pipe Line Company, and that it was in full force and effect during the year 1919, and also furnished certified copies of the notices which were introduced in evidence.

Tom Dies, who was in charge of the claim department of the pipe line company in 1919, testified by deposition that the files in his office disclosed that the accident had been reported to the Industrial Accident Board, also furnished .copy of notice to the Industrial Accident Board showing that the Gulf Pipe Line Company was carrying compensation insurance with the appellant, and same was introduced in evidence. The trial judge admitted this character of testimony, because written notice had been given by plaintiff to the defendant to produce in court on the trial of the cause the original of the policy and other documents testified to, and same had not been produced on the trial; and he limited the same in his charge as follows:

“You are instructed that .you will not consider the statement or statements made in said documents as evidence upon the trial of this case that the plaintiff was in fact injured as set out therein.

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Bluebook (online)
254 S.W. 1019, 1923 Tex. App. LEXIS 556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-ins-v-pierce-texapp-1923.