Texas General Indemnity Co. v. Moreno

638 S.W.2d 908, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4139
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 25, 1982
Docket01-81-0765-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 638 S.W.2d 908 (Texas General Indemnity Co. v. Moreno) 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 General Indemnity Co. v. Moreno, 638 S.W.2d 908, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4139 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

PRICE, Justice.

This is a Worker’s Compensation case. After a jury trial, appellee, Miguel S. Moreno, was awarded compensation for total and permanent disability.

On January 15, 1979, plaintiff was employed by Louisiana Pacific Corporation. He got on a conveyor belt in order to press lumber down on the belt. While he was doing this someone turned on the belt. The roller which is underneath the belt has *911 “teeth” in it that caught his pants and pulled him under the belt. He managed to pull himself from under the belt and called for help, and then passed out.

In its first three points of error the appellant complains that the trial court erred in entering judgment based on the jury’s answers to special issues one, two and three wherein the jury found that the injury to plaintiff produced total and permanent disability because there was either no evidence or insufficient evidence to support the jury’s findings to these issues.

It is well settled in Texas that a trial court judge cannot commit error in rendering a judgment on the verdict if the evidence the jury considered to base its findings is only insufficient or against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. Consequently, a point of error which states that the trial court erred in rendering a judgment on a verdict because of the state of the evidence — if it is adequate for any purpose — is only a “no evidence” point. Chemical Cleaning, Inc. v. Chemical Cleaning & Equipment Service, Inc., et al., 462 S.W.2d 277 (Tex.1970). In considering the three above mentioned points of error, we need only to look for some evidence, regardless of how conflicting or how slight, on which the jury based its findings.

The record indicates by way of testimony and numerous photographs that the appellant received an extensive injury to his right leg. An orthopedic surgeon was called in because the appellee’s sciatic nerve, the motor nerve that controls all of the muscles in the lower extremity of the body, was hanging out of the wound. The plastic surgeon, who testified about this injury and the results thereof, gave conflicting testimony as to whether the injury produced a total incapacity. He testified at one point that the injury did not extend into the buttock area and that the amount of disability would be in proportion to the amount of discomfort the appellee was having. However, he also stated that the injury would make him disabled as a total person. The appellee testified that when he returned to work after the injury, he found that his back, hip and leg became stiff. Further, he cannot bend and suffers from pain. He also testified that he cannot lift heavy objects, that he has lost twenty pounds since the accident, that he cannot sleep well, and that by the end of his shift he has a severe headache from the pain.

It is obvious from the record that there is some evidence that the injury to the appel-lee is general in nature and is of a total and permanent capacity. Appellant’s first three points of error are overruled.

In its fourth and fifth points of error, the appellant complains that the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s challenges for cause to prospective jurors Ronald Lun-dy and L. D. Price, as each juror was disqualified as a matter of law.

During voir dire of the jury panel, two of the jurors expressed a prejudice towards the appellant. Mr. Ronald Lundy stated that two of his friends who had worked for Louisiana-Pacific Corporation died and were never compensated. He was asked by appellant’s attorney if he could keep this out of his mind if he were on the jury and he answered “no, sir.” He was then asked by the court if he could take the oath as a juror and not let his personal experiences enter into his decision. He stated that he could. However, the appellant’s attorney immediately questioned him as to the inconsistency of his two answers and asked if the personal experience with his two friends could affect his answers, and he stated:

“Well, I couldn’t give a positive answer. All I could to do is try to do it and make an unbiased decision.”

The court held that he was qualified.

The other juror, Mr. L. D. Price, stated that he did not feel that he could be fair and impartial because he had a son-in-law who was killed on the job and stated that it was “such a long drawn out affair that I don’t know if I could be fair or not.” The judge asked this juror if he could follow the law and lay aside his personal experiences. He responded, “yes”. Again, the appellant’s attorney questioned the juror about *912 his feelings and the following discourse took place.

By Mr. Rogers: Mr. Price, I understood you to say in the first instance when Mr. Knight asked you the question “whether you could be fair”, that you did not think you could be because of your personal experience of your son-in-law’s death; is that right?
By Mr. Price: Yes. The way my daughter has been — I think it’s been prolonged and—
By Mr. Rogers: Because of that, I understood you to say that you could not be fair in this case; is that right?
Mr. Price: I believe I would weigh a little heavier towards the insurance company. By Mr. Rogers: Let me be sure I understand what you mean. Are you trying to tell us that you would be going to the box as a juror with some inclination to be more favorable to the party bringing the suit and having some bad feelings against the insurance company?
By Mr. Price: Right.

Due to the answers given by the prospective jurors, the appellant asked that each be challenged for cause. The court overruled both motions. The voir dire was concluded and the appellant made its peremptory challenges, striking both Mr. Lundy and Mr. Price from the list of prospective jurors. After the testimony at trial was concluded, the appellant complained, through a bill of exceptions, that it had been forced to use two peremptory challenges to strike the jurors challenged for cause. As a result it stated in such bill of exceptions that it had no challenges left to strike two undesirable jurors who served on the jury. The question is whether the bill made at such time was timely. We think not.

In order to properly complain, the appellant would be required to show that before it exercised its peremptory challenges, it apprized the trial court that two of the prospective jurors were objectionable to it and that it would have challenged those jurors had it not been forced to exhaust two challenges on objectionable jurors. Palestine Contractors Inc. v. Perkins, 386 S.W.2d 764 (Tex.Sup.Ct.1964); O’Day et ux, v. Sakowitz Brothers et al., 462 S.W.2d 119 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1970, ref’d n. r. e.); Hammon v. Texas and New Orleans Railroad Co., 382 S.W.2d 155 (Tex.Civ.App.1964, writ ref’d n. r.

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Bluebook (online)
638 S.W.2d 908, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-general-indemnity-co-v-moreno-texapp-1982.