Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Arabie

277 S.W.2d 267, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 24, 1955
DocketNo. 4994
StatusPublished

This text of 277 S.W.2d 267 (Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Arabie) 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' Insurance Ass'n v. Arabie, 277 S.W.2d 267, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The appellee, Andres Arabie, instituted this suit June 13, 19S2, to set aside a compromise settlement agreement hé and appellant entered into March 12, 19S2, with reference to a claim appellee was asserting under the Workmen’s Compensation Law, Art. 8306 et seq., V.T.C.S. The agreement was approved by the Industrial Accident Board April 25, 1952. During pendency of the suit, to wit, on March 27, 1953, appel-lee petitioned the Industrial Accident Board to vacate its order of April 25, 1952,' approving the compromise settlement agreement and to set his claim for hearing on its merits. Under date of April 8, 1953, the Board advised appellee by letter that it considered the matter closed. Thereupon and within twenty days after April 8, ap-pellee notified the Board that he was unwilling to abide by its order refusing to set aside its earlier order of approval and would appeal therefrom by filing suit in a court of competent jurisdiction. Then, on April 30, 1953, which was within twenty days of the date of which the notice last above, mentioned was given, he filed herein his second amended original petition on which he went to trial. In this petition, in addition to pleading the matters on which he relied for cancellation of the compromise settlement agreement, appellee, as if appealing from a final award of the Industrial Accident Board, and apparently treating the Board’s letter of April 8, 1953, as such an award, pleaded as for recovery of compensation benefits, alleged that his injuries had resulted in his total permanent incapacity, and prayed accordingly.

He predicated his right to have the compromise settlement agreement set aside upon two distinct theories: (1) the theory that he was induced by legal fraud to enter into the agreement; (2) the theory that he withdrew from the compromise settlement agreement before the order of the Industrial Accident Board approving it became final and therefore at a time when he was at liberty to withdraw from it at will. In this latter connection, he took the position that a telegram from one of his attorneys, in which the Board was requested not to approve the agreement, was received by the Board both before the close of business on the day the compromise settlement agreement was approved and before the Board’s letter of approval had been mailed, and therefore before the order of approval had become final under the Board’s Rule 14, which is as follows: “The Board’s approval of a compromise settlement agreement, properly executed, shall be final unless a 'request not to approve same has been received by the Board before the close of business of the day on which same has been approved; provided, however, if the Board’s letter’ of approval of suc-h compromise settlement agreement has been mailed before such request not to approve has been received, the Board’s approval in such case shall be final.”

As constituting. fraud, appellee pleaded that the extent of his injuries was misrepresented to him by a Mr. Haney, identified as the defendant’s claim representative, and by Dr.. Thomas Matlock, who had treated him on behalf of the defendant. Haney was alleged to have told him at the time the agreement was entered into that the “medical reports from the company doctors were all negative and that he [Arabie] had no injury of any consequence.” Dr. Matlock was alleged to have told him shortly before the agreement was entered into that he [Arabie] had no injury of consequence but merely a minor sprain of his back which would amount to nothing, and that his trouble would clear up and he would be all right within a short while.

The case was submitted to a jury on twelve special issues, all pertaining to ap-[269]*269pellee’s right to have the compromise settlement agreement set aside. In response to the first five of these (1, 2, 3-A, 4), the jury found that during the first part of March, 1952, Dr. Matlock told plaintiff his injury was of no consequence and would clear up within a short time; that such statement was untrue; that at the time of entering into the compromise settlement agreement plaintiff believed the statement; that in making the agreement plaintiff relied on the statement; and that the statement was a material inducement to plaintiff in making the compromise settlement. In response to four of the succeeding five questions (5, 7, 7-A, 8), the jury found that “on or about March 12, 1952, Mr. Haney stated to plaintiff that based on the medical report of Dr. Glass that he had no injury of any consequence”; that plaintiff believed such statement; that in making the compromise settlement plaintiff relied on the statement; and that such statement was a material inducement to plaintiff in making the compromise settlement. However, by a negative answer in response to special issue No. 6, the jury failed to find from a preponderance of the evidence that the statement which it found Haney made to plaintiff was untrue. The jury was unable to reach an agreement on special issue No. 9 and left it unanswered, the issue being as follows: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that plaintiff received a serious accidental injury to his back on or about January 23, 1952?” In response to the only other issue submitted to it (issue No. 10), the jury found that the telegram in which the Industrial Accident Board was requested not to approve the compromise settlement agreement was received by the Board before the latter’s letter of approval was mailed.

On the jury’s verdict, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff to the extent that the compromise settlement agreement was declared set aside and cancelled, and all orders of the Industrial Accident Board pertaining to it were declared vacated. Plaintiff’s suit for compensation benefits was declared dismissed, presumably for want of jurisdiction; but since no complaint is made of the judgment in this respect, that phase' of the case is only incidentally involved on appeal.

The appellee in effect concedes that since the jury failed to find that the representations made by Haney were false the judgment was not predicated upon and is not supported by the remaining findings made with reference to those representations. As a consequence, we have disregarded those findings and the evidence bearing on them and have proceeded upon the theory that if the judgment is to be upheld it must find support either in the evidence and findings with reference to Dr. Matlock’s representations or in the evidence and findings with reference to appellee’s attempt to withdraw from the compromise settlement agreement on the day it was approved.

The appellant takes the position that there was no evidence to show that the plaintiff relied upon any false statement made by Dr. Matlock or that he was thereby induced to enter into the compromise settlement agreement, and contends that the evidence affirmatively show's that plaintiff relied upon the advice of a physician of his own choice, Dr. Tritico, to whom he went for treatment after he was discharged by Dr. Matlock. This contention was made in the trial court by motion for instructed verdict, and that court’s action in overruling the motion is assigned as error in appellant’s first point. It is necessary, therefore, that we set out the evidence which is thought to bear on the subject, and we shall do so by summarizing it in part and by quoting it in part.

The plaintiff, a carpenter, injured his back January 23, 1952, when he undertook to lift a heavy form. He finished ,the day’s work' and did not report his injury to his employer until the following morning. When he did report it, he was referred to Dr. Matlock for examination and treatment. He went to see Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
277 S.W.2d 267, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-insurance-assn-v-arabie-texapp-1955.