TEXAS EMPLOYERS'INSURANCE ASSOCIATION v. Hacker

448 S.W.2d 234, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2657
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 21, 1969
Docket17063
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 448 S.W.2d 234 (TEXAS EMPLOYERS'INSURANCE ASSOCIATION v. Hacker) 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 ASSOCIATION v. Hacker, 448 S.W.2d 234, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2657 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

This is a Workmen’s Compensation Case. The trial was before a jury. The judgment, in line with the jury verdict, awarded plaintiff compensation for total and permanent disability and the insurance company appealed. The parties will be referred to here as in the trial court.

Defendant’s points Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 contend that there is no competent evidence and that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 15, finding that plaintiff worked in the same employment for the same or another employer for at least 210 days during the year immediately preceding the date of plaintiff’s injury.

We overrule these contentions, believing and holding that there was sufficient evidence offered during this trial to support the jury’s answer to Issue No. 15.

The record showed that for two different employers the plaintiff had worked a total of more than 210 days during the year immediatély preceding the time he was hurt. The plaintiff and other witnesses testified in detail as to the nature of the businesses of the two employers and as to the various duties of the job plaintiff did for each employer. We believe that within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Law the jury was justified in answering Special Issue No. 15 as it did and that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s answer to the issue.

One of defendant’s main contentions in connection with this issue is that plaintiff, while testifying, made some judicial admissions contrary to the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 15 and that he is bound by them.

At one time plaintiff testified that his work at White’s (his employer when hurt) was not all the same thing as his work at Domore’s (the other employer for whom he worked during the material year) but that you could say it was similar.

At another time plaintiff testified that between June 17, 1967, and June 17, 1968 (the date of the injury) he had not worked at White’s or for any other employer doing the same or similar work that he was doing at White’s when hurt for as many as 210 days.

At another time plaintiff testified that his employment at Domore’s was the same as it was at White’s. At another time he testified that the employment at Domore’s was not the same or similar to that at White’s and that the two were altogether different.

Defendant contends that plaintiff’s testimony as above indicated were judicial admissions and that plaintiff is bound by his statements that the work was not the same.

Each time plaintiff gave such testimony he was being asked whether or not the work he was doing at Domore’s was similar or the same as that work he was doing at White’s when hurt.

This simply asked for his opinion or conclusion about the matter.

Once plaintiff was being asked during this trial the following question: “Mr. Hacker, was the work out at Domore the same or similar employment as that out at Whites, or not?”

Defendant objected to it on the grounds that it invaded the jury’s province and *237 called for a conclusion and the question was then not answered.

We also conclude that these expressions by plaintiff as to whether the work at White’s and Domore’s was or was not similar or the same are mere opinions of the witness and are not such statements that would conclusively bind a party.

It is clear from the cases of Griffin v. Superior Insurance Company, 161 Tex. 195, 338 S.W.2d 415 (1960) and United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Carr, 242 S.W.2d 224 (San Antonio Tex.Civ. App., 1951, writ refused) that it is necessary before testimony of this nature conclusively binds a party that five elements must be present. One element is that the statement relied on as conclusive on plaintiff must be deliberate, clear and unequivocal. We hold that opinion testimony of the nature here relied on does not meet that test and therefore plaintiff was not here bound by such opinions.

The plaintiff and other witnesses had outlined the facts with reference to the duties of plaintiff’s job at Domore’s and had also given the duties of his job at White’s. Whether or not the employments were the same was the ultimate issue for the jury’s determination.

The case of Griffin v. Superior Insurance Company, supra, 338 S.W.2d at page 418 says: “In 169 A.L.R. 799, II, * * * Further, on pages 800-801, III, the rule is stated to be that ‘if a party testifies deliberately to a concrete fact, not as a matter of opinion, estimate, appearance, inference, or uncertain memory, but as a considered circumstance of the case, his adversary is entitled to hold him to it as an informal judicial admission.’ ”

Since it is obvious that the matters relied on by defendant as judicial admissions of plaintiff were mere opinions the plaintiff was not bound by them.

Defendant’s points Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, and 10 all attack Issue No. 17 in the charge submitting the question of whether there was another employee of the same class as plaintiff who worked at least 210 days etc., under Subdivision 2 of Art. 8309, Sec. 1, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St.

It is not necessary for us to discuss these points in view of our holding that the evidence in the case sufficiently supported the jury’s answer to Issue No. 15 wherein the trial court submitted the wage rate feature of the case under Art. 8309, Sec. 1, Subd. 1, V.A.T.S. Subdivision 2 of that statute does not become involved where Subdivision 1 is applicable as it is here. These points are overruled.

During the trial the plaintiff’s lawyer, while cross-examining Dr. Burross, held some type of medical book or journal in his hands in the presence of the jury where the jury could see it and could see the lawyer looking at such book while asking questions, and he referred to such book while asking questions.

While the above was going on plaintiff’s counsel asked questions and answers were given as related below.

“Q. Would you agree or disagree that the sum of the literature suggests that spon-dylolisthesis is presently considered to be an acquired anomaly with the defect of the pars interarticularis vesicles of both that originate either as a consequence of a stress fracture or as a result of acute trauma; do you agree or disagree with that, sir?
“A. I’d like for you to read the whole thing again, sir, if you would, because I think there’s a lot you did specify in that.
⅝ ⅝ ⅜
“Q. Dr. Burross, are you acquainted with Dr. Edward B. Henderson from the Mayo Clinic at Mayo Foundation Section of Orthopedic Surgery in Rochester, Minnesota ?
“A. No, sir; I am not.
“Q. All right, but do you agree or disagree with my statement; I’m asking you *238 if you agree or disagree with my statement, please, sir?
it * * *
“Q.

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Bluebook (online)
448 S.W.2d 234, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employersinsurance-association-v-hacker-texapp-1969.