UMC, INC. v. Coonrod Elec. Co., Inc.

667 S.W.2d 549
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 22, 1983
Docket13-82-169-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 667 S.W.2d 549 (UMC, INC. v. Coonrod Elec. Co., Inc.) 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
UMC, INC. v. Coonrod Elec. Co., Inc., 667 S.W.2d 549 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

GONZALEZ, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a personal injury suit denying claims for indemnity and contribution. After a jury trial, the trial court granted the injured party a money judgment against UMC based on strict liability and negligence and denied UMC’s claim for indemnity and contribution against appellees. Appellant appeals only that portion of the judgment that denied it indemnity and contribution. We affirm.

Facts

On January 27, 1980, Theodore Hernandez was working as a utility worker for Virginia Chemicals Company in a plant near Bishop, Texas. As Hernandez was throwing handfuls of sodium formate between a conveyor belt and the rollers in order to create friction and prevent slippage, his hand and arm were pulled into the rollers causing extensive injuries to the upper body. The resulting injury necessitated the amputation of his left arm above the elbow.

The plant had three separate conveyors, two of which were installed with pull-cord safety switches so that they could be shut down immediately in the event of a mishap. These two conveyors had walkways along one side of the conveyor and the pull-cord safety switches were next to the walkway. The one involved in the accident had no such switch despite the fact that the plans called for one, nor was there a walkway next to this conveyor. (It is clear from the the evidence that UMC left off the switch on this conveyor.)

The plant was designed by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. and the conveyor systems were sold and installed by UMC, a subsidiary of Jacobs. The conveyor system was fabricated by Taunton Engineering Company. Coonrod Electric Co., Inc. did the electrical wiring, including that related to the conveyor systems. Arthur Brothers contracted with Virginia Chemicals, the owner of the plant, to maintain the plant once operational.

After the accident, Hernandez filed suit against UMC, Jacobs Engineering, Taunton Engineering and Arthur Brothers. This suit spawned various cross-actions among the defendants, each of them seeking to distribute the amount of damages or to shift the entire loss from one defendant to another.

After the close of the evidence, but prior to the submission of the charge, Hernandez nonsuited Taunton, which had settled with Hernandez under a “Mary Carter” type agreement. Based on the jury’s verdict, judgment was rendered for Hernandez [553]*553against UMC in the amount of Eight Hundred Ninety Thousand One Hundred Fifty Dollars and 34/ioo ($890,150.34). Subsequently, the judgment against UMC was released by Hernandez in consideration for the payment of Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($750,000.00). This appeal followed and it concerns only UMC’s claims for contribution and indemnity against Co-onrod and Arthur Brothers.

Among other things, the jury found that:

la) the conveyor in question left UMC’s possession without a pull-cord safety switch;
lb) the absence of such rendered it defective;
lc) such defect was a producing cause of the occurrence in question;
2a) UMC failed to give adequate warning of the danger or adequate instructions for safe use of said conveyor without a pull-cord safety switch at the time of installation;
2b) that such rendered the item unreasonably dangerous as marketed;
2c) and this was a producing cause of the occurrence in question;
3) the conveyor was not defectively designed by. Taunton;
4) Hernandez did not assume the risk nor was he negligent.

The jury also found UMC negligent in failing to install a pull-cord safety switch, and that such was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question. No other defendant was found negligent.

In its fifth point of error, UMC claims that it is entitled to indemnity from Coon-rod as a matter of law. Specifically, UMC contends that the record conclusively shows that Coonrod breached a contractual duty it owed to UMC since Coonrod allegedly did not report the deletion of the safety switch to UMC.

The basis for UMC’s indemnity claim is that the contract entered into between them contains the following provision:

Coonrod “shall indemnify and hold harmless” UMC “from all losses, ... for injury ... to any person ... resulting from ... or in any way connected with the activities of” Coonrod “regardless of whether the same may arise in whole or in part from the negligence or alleged negligence of” UMC “and likewise from all losses ... however caused because of damage to property or injury or alleged injury ... while on premises under the control of” Coonrod “or while the same are performing under this agreement.”

Indemni ty-Pleading

Before we consider the issue of indemnity, we first address Coonrod’s contention that contractual indemnity was not properly pleaded. Generally,

[a] petition in an action predicated upon a contract must contain a short statement of the cause of action sufficient to give fair notice of the claim involved, including an allegation of a contractual relationship between the parties, and the substance of the contract which supports the pleader’s right to recover. Air & Pump Co. v. Almaquer, 609 S.W.2d 309, 313 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1980, no writ).

We have reviewed UMC’s pleadings and agree with Coonrod that UMC’s claim for indemnity against Coonrod and Arthur Brothers is based solely on negligence.

In Almaquer, there were proper objections to the introduction of the indemnity contract upon the ground that such claim was not supported by the pleadings. No such objections were made here. The contract was admitted for all purposes.

“When issues not raised by the pleadings are tried by express or implied consent of the parties, they shall be treated in all respects as if they had been raised in the pleadings. In such case, such amendment of the pleadings as may be necessary to cause them to conform to the evidence and to raise these issues may be made by leave of court upon motion of any party at any time up to the submission of the case to the Court or jury, but [554]*554failure so to amend shall not affect the result of the trial of these issues.... ”

Rule 67, TEX.R.CIV.P.

In numerous contract disputes, the Supreme Court of Texas has repeatedly written: “It is elementary that if there is no ambiguity, the construction of the written instrument is a question of law for the court.” City of Pinehurst v. Spooner Addition Water Co., 432 S.W.2d 515, 518 (Tex.1968); Myers v. Gulf Coast Minerals Management Corp., 361 S.W.2d 193, 196 (Tex.1962). The meaning of the indemnity contract before us is therefore a question of law for the court. Accord Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 363 F.2d 465, 467 (5th Cir.1966). It is the province of the jury to determine the facts and the province of the court to construe the coverage of an indemnity contract and to apply that contract to the facts found by the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
667 S.W.2d 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/umc-inc-v-coonrod-elec-co-inc-texapp-1983.