Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Blancett

96 S.W.2d 420, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 791
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 29, 1936
DocketNo. 13383.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 96 S.W.2d 420 (Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Blancett) 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
Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Blancett, 96 S.W.2d 420, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 791 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

SPEER, Justice.

This suit was instituted by the Traders & General Insurance Company as plaintiff in the form of an appeal from an award by the Industrial Accident Board in favor of C. Blancett, growing out of an alleged accident resulting in injury to Blancett while in the employ of the Peckham Oil Company as an oil well driller, on June 21, 1934.

C. Blancett answered the petition and filed a cross-action against the plaintiff for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq.)

The pleadings of the parties were sufficient to give jurisdiction to the district court of Archer county: The employment of Blancett, the details of how the accident happened, the liability of plaintiff, that Blancett was accidentally injured, resulting in his permanent incapacity to labor, together with facts pleaded sufficient to entitle him to a lump-sum settlement.

The plaintiff responded to the cross-action with a supplemental petition containing a general denial of the cross-action, and specifically pleading that if the defendant was suffering from any injuries, they were caused from a previous accidental injury to Blancett, for which it was not responsible.

No question is raised by either party as to the sufficiency of the pleadings of the other, and having observed none ourselves, we deem it unnecessary at this time to mention them further.

We shall refer to the parties as plaintiff and defendant as they appeared in the trial court.

■ The testimony introduced by defendant in support of his cross-action tended to show that he had been an oil well driller for a number of years prior to the accident on June 21, 1934, and that on that date he was operating a rotary drill for the Peckham Oil Company, and that his work required him to stand a good portion of the time on the derrick floor or platform, but that it often became necessary for him to pass from this floor onto the ground and about the premises to look after such matters as were necessary to the drilling. That this platform was about 2½ feet higher than the ground, and that there was a board or step at one side used to enable persons to pass easily from the ground to the platform, or vice versa. That within two or three feet of this step there was a piece of equipment known as a mud pump or “mud hog.” It was higher than the surface of the ground roundabout, was of metal, and had metal bolts projecting up a slight way from its top. It became necessary for the defendant to leave the platform where he was working and gó down the step to the ground, with a view to cutting off a water supply. The platform and step were wet, muddy, and *422 slick. As he stepped from the platform onto'the board between the platform and the ground, his foot slipped and he fell forward across the mud pump, in a position that his abdomen struck the pump and the bolts projecting therefrom, causing, as he claims, the injuries resulting in the damages sued for.

The plaintiff developed, upon cross-examination and from other sources, the fact that defendant had previously received an injury on April 4, 1927, for which he had sued, claiming total and permanent incapacity to labor, and recovered judgment covering 401 weeks, the maximum time allowed by law for a recovery under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Vernon’s Ann. Civ.St. art. 8306, § 10); that in 1929 the defendant compromised that case and received payment.

The plaintiff also offered testimony tending to show that defendant had 'suffered attacks with his appendix and with his gall bladder prior to June 21, 1934.

On the next day after defendant re- . ceived his injury, he was taken to a Wichita Falls hospital, where he was operated upon. The doctors admit that they did not know what defendant’s trouble was prior to the operation, but that he was . suffering such intense pain and was so critically ill that it became necessary that they make an incision to ascertain his trouble. They found his appendix and gall bladder involved and removed them, and by accident in making an exploratory examination found a small piece of steel resembling a wire lying between his small intestines.

It was uncontroverted that defendant at the time of the trial had made but little progress toward total recovery, had lost about eighteen pounds in weight, with the apparent controverted issue being whether the operation was rendered necessary by the accident, or was it brought about by previous physical defects in the defendant?

The case was submitted to a jury on special issues, along with definitions and explanations about which there seems to be no complaint.

The facts found by the jury in response to special issues were as follows:

(1) Defendant sustained personal injuries on the 21st day of June, 1934.

(2) • Defendant sustained personal injuries while he was engaged in the course of his employment for Peckham Oil Company on June 21, 1934.

(3) That the injuries sustained by defendant on the date mentioned were the result of an accident.

(4) The injuries received by defendant occurred at a time when he was in the employ of the Peckham Oil Company.

(5-a) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant C. Blancett became totally incapacitated for work on the 21st day of June, 1934?” Answer': “Yes.”

(5-b) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such total incapacity for work, if any, of said Blancett, has continued up to the present time?” Answer: “Yes.”.

(5-c) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such total incapacity for work, if any, of the said C. Blanchett, will continue in the future?” Answer: “Yes.”

(6) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such total incapacity for work, if any, of the said C. Blancett, is permanent?” Answer: “Yes.”

“If you have answered special issue 5-a ‘yes’ and have answered special issue No. 6 ‘yes,’ then you need not answer special issue No. 7, but if you have answered special issue No. 5-a ‘yes’ and special issue No. 6 ‘no,’ then you will answer the following special issue No. 7.”

(7) “From a preponderance of the evidence fix the number of weeks, if any, of such total incapacity for work, if any, of said C. Blancett, from and after June 21, 1934.” Answer: No answer.

(8-a) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that C. Blancett’s incapacity for work, if any, since the 21st day of June, 1934, has been only partial incapacity for work?” Answer: “No.”

(8-b) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that C. Blancett’s incapacity for work, if any, he has, at the present time, is only partial incapacity for work?” Answer: “No.”

(8-c) “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that C. Blancett’s incapacity for work, if any he will have, will be only partial incapacity for work in the future?” Answer: “No.”

Issues 9-a, b, c, and 10 were conditional inquiries and were not answered.

(11) The injuries sustained by defendant on June 21, 1934, were the producing cause of the incapacity for work of the de-. fendant

*423

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Bluebook (online)
96 S.W.2d 420, 1936 Tex. App. LEXIS 791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/traders-general-ins-co-v-blancett-texapp-1936.