Traders' & General Ins. Co. v. Rouse

39 S.W.2d 80, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 497
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 28, 1931
DocketNo. 2069.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 39 S.W.2d 80 (Traders' & General Ins. Co. v. Rouse) 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. Rouse, 39 S.W.2d 80, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 497 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

WALKER, J.

This suit was filed by appellee in the district court of Angelina county against appellant, in the nature of an appeal from sin adverse award of the Industrial Accident Board, wherein he was claimant, appellant was insurer, and Lufkin Foundry & Machinery Company of Lufkin, Tex., was employer. By his first amended original petition he pleaded the necessary jurisdictional facts and the nature and result of his injuries, resulting in total, permanent disability, and the basis upon which he claimed his average weekly wage. Appellant answered by general and special demurrers and general denial. Upon trial to the court without a jury, judgment was entered in favor of appellee that he was “totally and permanently incapacitated,” and his compensation fixed at $8.65 per week for the statutory period of total permanent disability upon a finding that his average weekly wage was $14.42.

Appellant presents its appeal upon the following propositions:

First. Appellee’s petition was defective, “in that it did not allege that the plaintiff had not been working in the employment in which he was working at the time of the injury for substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding the injury; and the defendant’s exception to that part of plaintiff’s petition on the ground that it was vague and indefinite and should therefore have been sustained.” Appellant says that this proposition is germane to its third assignment of error, which complains that the court erred in overruling its special exception to the seventh paragraph of the appellee’s petition, which was as follows: “That at the time of his injuries, plaintiff was employed and was working six days per week, and was earning an average daily wage of $2.50 per day; that the averdge daily wage of other employees engaged in the same or similar employment as that of plaintiff in the same or a neighboring place as that in which plaintiff was working when injured, throughout substantially the whole of the preceding year before the 7th day of June, A. D. 1929, was $3.50 per day, and plaintiff alleges that his compensation should be based upon the wages of such other employees and upon an average daily wage of $3.50 instead of $2.50; and, plaintiff alleges that, in the event that he should be mistaken as to the length of time other employees have been engaged in the same or similar employment as his at the time of his injuries and in the same or neighboring place for substantially a year preceding the date of his injuries, then that his compensation should be based upon whatever average daily wage as may be just and fair between the parties thereto.”

The exception, as stated in the proposition, was that plaintiff did not allege “that he had not been working in the employment in which he was working at the time of the Injury for substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding the -injury,” and that the pleading was “vague and indefinite.” "Without . further comment, we say the pleading was not vague and indefinite. Also we agree with appellant’s argument that, as a general proposition, appellee was required to- plead his average weekly wage under subdivision I of section 1 of article 8309, R. S. 1925, or, if he relied upon subdivision 2 or 3, to plead facts excusing him from claiming under section 1. American Employers’ Ins. Go. v. Singleton (Tex. Com. App.) 24 S.W.(2d) 26. But that is not the proposition advanced by appellant, under its third assignment of error, that is, appellant does not say that the petition was insufficient because appellee pleaded his average weekly wage under subdivision 2 or 3 without pleading facts excusing him from claiming under subdivision 1 of section 1, but only that he did not plead in section 7 of his petition that he had not been working in the employment in which he was working at the time of his injury for substantially the whole of the year preceding his injury. The proposition is without merit. In construing a special exception against a particular paragraph of the petition, the whole petition must be reviewed, for the plaintiff is not required to plead all the facts of his case in one paragraph. So, where a particular paragraph is excepted to on the ground that certain essential facts are not pleaded, if such facts are pleaded in other paragraphs of the petition, the special exception should be overruled. In this case, making the petition good as against appellee’s exceptions to paragraph 7, plaintiff pleaded in other paragraphs as follows: “That on or about the 7th day of June, A. D. 1929, and for a period of about one week prior thereto the plaintiff was employed with Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company, of Lufkin, Texas. * * * Further pleading herein, plaintiff represents that on or about the 7th day of June, A. D. 1929, and "for a period of about one week prior thereto, he was employed by Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company -at Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas, his work consisting of operating an electric drill machine and drill press.” No special exceptions were urged against these allegations. They were sufficient to make paragraph 7 good against the exceptiqns assigned against it.

By its second, third, and fourth propositions, appellant asserts that the trial court erred in failing and refusing to file conclusions of fact and law. Appellant dply requested the trial court to file such conclu *82 sions, its motion was duly granted by a formal order, the court failed to comply with the order by filing conclusions separate from those embodied in the judgment, to which action- 'of the court appellant duly reserved its bill of exceptions. After allowing the bill of exceptions, the trial court approved a statement of facts which appellee duly filed. The trial court, in its judgment, made extensive conclusions both of fact and law which fully support the judgment in appellee’s favor, as follows:

“That on the 7th day of June, A. D. 1929, the Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company of Luf-kin, Angelina County, Texas, was subscriber tovthe Employers’ Liability Act in the State of Texas through and by virtue of a policy of compensation insurance carried with the defendant, Traders and General Insurance Company, a corporation, of Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, insuring the employees of the Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company against loss on account of accidental personal injuries arising out of and in the course of their employment; and on said 7th day of June, A. D. 1929, the Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company had in its'employ the plaintiff, Willie Rouse, who, on said day, sustained an accidental personal injury while engaged in the course of his employment: and, that the average weekly wages made the predicate of compensation herein is $14.42 per week and that the plaintiff, Willie Rouse, is entitled to compensation herein at the consequent rate of $8.65 per week.
“The court further finds that as a direct and proximate result of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff, Willie Rouse, as hereinabove found, he has been rendered totally and permanently incapacitated for the performance of labor and that the plaintiff, Willie Rouse, is therefore, entitled to recover from and have paid to him by the defendant, Traders & General Insurance Company, a compensation at the fixed rate of $8.65 per week, same beginning to accrue on the 14th day of June, A. D. 1929, and continuing thereafter for the full, final and complete period of four hundred and one (401) weeks.”

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Bluebook (online)
39 S.W.2d 80, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/traders-general-ins-co-v-rouse-texapp-1931.