Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Vineyard

296 S.W.2d 588, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2387
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided November 15, 1956·No. No. 3396·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

TIREY, Justice.

1 This is a suit to set aside a compromise settlement agreement in a compensation case. Appellee grounded his cause of action on fraud practiced upon him in obtaining his signature to the agreement. This is the second appeal. See Vineyard v. Texas Employers Ins. Assn, Tex.Civ.App., 263 S.W.2d 675, 680.

At the conclusion of the testimony the court overruled appellant’s motion for instructed verdict and the jury found substantially: (1 to 6 inch) that appellant’s claim agent showed the written report of Dr. Brown to appellee prior to his signing the settlement agreement, and he believed such report when he signed the settlement agreement, and appellee would not have en[589] tered into the settlement agreement had the written report not been shown to him by-appellant’s agent, and that the opinions expressed by Dr. Brown in the written report were false and erroneous, and that in showing the written report of Dr. Brown to plaintiff appellant’s agent was acting to procure a compromise settlement agreement; that before signing the settlement agreement appellee was advised by the claim agent that Dr. Brown said that appellee would be well in two or three weeks, and that he believed the oral statement of Dr. Brown as related to him by the agent when he signed the settlement agreement, and that appellee would not have entered into the agreement had the opinion of Dr. Brown, as related by the agent, not been made; (6 and 7) that the opinion expressed by Dr. Brown in the oral report, as related by the agent to appellee, was false and erroneous, and that the agent in relating Dr. Brown’s oral statement to appel-lee was acting to procure a settlement agreement; (8) appellee did not sustain total incapacity to labor; (11) that appellee did sustain partial incapacity to labor; (12) that such partial incapacity to labor was permanent; (14) that the degree of extent of such partial incapacity to labor was 50%'; (15) that $41.20 would be just and fair to all parties as the average weekly wage of appellee; (16) that the extent of the injury ■of appellee on the occasion in question was uncertain, indefinite and incapable of being satisfactorily established; (17) that the injuries of appellee on August 10, 1949, were not healed, cured and no longer existing within a period of approximately three weeks from the date of the alleged injury; (18) that appellee’s disability was not solely the result of his pre-existing congenital and developmental deformity (spondylolisthe-sis) including from ½" to 1" displacement of the fifth lumbar vertebra on the sacrum in his bade; (19) that appellee’s disability was not solely the result of his preceding .activities during the 1949 football practice arid playing period, together with his pre-existing congenital and developmental deformity; (20) that the claim agent correctly repeated to plaintiff the oral statement of Dr. Brown, which statement Dr. Brown had on August 11, 1949 orally expressed to appellee regarding his condition and the length of his disability.

The court overruled appellant’s motion for judgment non obstante veredicto and granted appellee’s motion to disregard certain findings of the jury, and in the judgment we find this recital: “ * * * being of the opinion that there was no evidence or insufficient evidence to support the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 16, and that Special Issues Nos. 16 and 20 were not ultimate issues and were immaterial, said motion is in all things granted and sustained and the answers by the jury to Special Issues Nos. 16 and 20 are hereby disregarded, and the court being further of the opinion that, based on the answers of the jury to the remaining special issues, plaintiff ought to recover judgment against defendant, * * and decreed that such compromise settlement be set aside, and that the sum of $75 paid by appellant to the appellee under the terms of such settlement be credited to any amount of compensation hereafter awarded to appellee against appellant arising out of the accident in question. Appellant duly excepted to the order and gave notice of appeal.

The judgment is assailed on what appellant has designated as 13 Points. Points 1 to 6 inclusive are substantially to the effect that (1 and 2) the court erred in refusing to render judgment for appellant notwithstanding the verdict because there was no evidence that Dr. Brown was the agent of appellant and that the evidence was undisputed that defendant’s claim agent correctly repeated to appellee the statement made by Dr. Brown, and that there was no evidence that Dr. Brown was the agent of appellant; (3 and 4) in overruling the exceptions to ' appellee’s petition and the objections to the court’s charge to the effect that there was no pleading that Dr. Brown was the agent of appellant, and in [590] failing to .submit to the jury an issue inquiring whether or not Dr. Brown was the agent of appellant and in rendering judgment cancelling the compromise settlement agreement in the absence of a finding that Dr. Brown was appellant’s agent; (5) in overruling appellant’s objection to the special issue submitted to the jury because they assumed that Dr. Brown was the agent of appellant; (6) because the court failed to submit any issue based upon the lack of such issue embracing thé theory of ratification or adoption of Dr. Brown’s statement by appellant.

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Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Vineyard, 296 S.W.2d 588, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2387 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

296 S.W.2d 588 (Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Vineyard) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

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340 S.W.2d 106 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1960)
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316 S.W.2d 156 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1958)