United Employers Casualty Co. v. Hudson

152 S.W.2d 451, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 545
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 15, 1941
DocketNo. 5812
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 152 S.W.2d 451 (United Employers Casualty Co. v. Hudson) 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
United Employers Casualty Co. v. Hudson, 152 S.W.2d 451, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 545 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Chief Justice.

This suit was filed by Leon Hudson against United Employers Casualty Company seeking to set aside an order of the Industrial Accident Board and to recover compensation for total and permanent loss of the sight of his right eye, alleged to have resulted from accidental injury sustained in the course of his employment with R. F. Ball Construction Company, of which the defendant, United Employers Casualty Company, was the compensation insurance carrier. The defendant answered by general demurrer, special exception and general denial. The cause was submitted upon special issues in response to which the jury’s answers were favorable to plaintiff. Judgment was entered awarding plaintiff recovery of compensation for total and permanent loss of the sight of his right eye, at the rate of $9.60 per week for 100 weeks. From an order overruling its motion for new trial defendant has appealed.

Appellant’s first proposition complains of the action of the trial .court in overruling its objections and exceptions to [452]*452special issue No. 2 of the court’s charge, reading:

“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that such injury, if any you' have found, resulted in the total and permanent loss of the sight of plaintiff’s right eye?” (Jury answer: “Yes”)
“By the word ‘total’ is meant: ‘An absolute, complete and 100 per cent loss of sight.’ By the term ‘permanent’ is meant: ‘Remaining always the same.’ ”

Appellant timely objected to the submission of the issue because it was multifarious in that it contains two separate and distinct issues, capable of being answered differently, to-wit: (a) The issue as to whether appellee had sustained “total” loss of the sight of the right eye; and (b) whether such loss was “permanent.” The issue is subject to the objections urged. R.C.S.192S, Article 2189, provides that special issues shall be submitted distinctly and separately. The questions as to the totality of the incapacity and the duration of such incapacity are two separate issues and are required to be submitted separately. Lumbermen’s Reciprocal Ass’n v. Wilmoth, Tex.Com.App., 12 S.W.2d 972; Brotherhood of R. R. Trainmen v. Wood, Tex.Civ.App., 79 S.W.2d 665, and authorities therein collated; Simmonds v. St. Louis, B. & M. Ry., Tex.Com.App., 29 S.W.2d 989; Stinnett v. Paramount-Famous Lasky Corp’n, Tex.Com.App., 37 S.W.2d 145. Ap-pellee contends that since he relied on both of said issues for grounds of recovery, their multifarious submission places a greater burden upon him but did not injure appellant, therefore appellant could not complain, citing Bankers’ Lloyds v. Pollard, Tex.Civ.App., 40 S.W.2d 859; Fidelity Union Casualty Co. v. Cary, Tex.Civ.App., 13 S.W.2d 993; Georgia Casualty Co. v. Gibson, Tex.Civ.App., 11 S.W.2d 191, writ dismissed; Southern Surety Co. v. Solomon, Tex.Civ.App., 4 S.W.2d 599, par. 8; Texas Emp. Ins. Ass’n v. Heuer, Tex.Civ.App., 10 S.W.2d 756; Speer’s Law of Special Issues, 240, par. 184. Notwithstanding the views expressed in the text and in some of the opinions of the Courts of Civil Appeals cited by appellee, it appears that the question has been decided and settled by the Commission of Appeals adversely to appellee’s contention. In Lumbermen’s Reciprocal'Ass’n v. Wilmoth, supra [12 S.W.2d 973], it is said: “The special issue complained of reads as follows : ‘Was or not the injury received by G. T. Wilmoth such as to totally and permanently incapacitate him from following any gainful occupation?’ We think the special issue is subject to the objection urged. The statute (article 2189, R.S. 1925) requires that special issues shall be submitted distinctly and separately. This issue, in the form submitted, combined two separate and distinct questions of fact, one of which might be answered by the jury in the negative, and the other in the affirmative, or vice versa. A disability may be total, but temporary, or it may be permanent, but partial. The questions as to the totality of the incapacity and the duration of the injury should have been submitted as separate issues.”

The above rule has been held to apply to the specific injury involved, namely, the 'loss of the sight of one eye. Brotherhood of R. T. v. Wood, supra.

Appellee further contends that the evidence conclusively shows that ap-pellee’s injury resulted in the total loss of the sight of his right eye;. that the only part of special issue No. 2 necessary to be determined was the “duration” of such incapacity, therefore that part of special issue No. 2 inquiring as to the totality of such incapacity may be treated as surplusage. After careful consideration of the record, we are unable to sustain this contention. The testimony shows that on September 9, 1939, while working for R. F. Ball Construction Company in the erection of the Federal Correctional Institution at Texar-kana, Texas, appellee was wrecking forms with a steel wrecking bar when some foreign substance struck him in the right eye. He was immediately carried to the office of Dr. Joe Tyson who made a casual examination and referred him to Dr. L. H. Lanier for treatment. Dr. Lanier extracted from appellee’s right eyeball six small pieces of steel, concrete, wood, or other foreign substances, the exact nature of which he did not determine. Dr. Lanier treated the eye again on September 10th, 11th, 13th, and discharged him on the 14th as having recovered from the injury. Forty-four days later, on October 28, 1939, appellee was treated by Dr. R. R. ■ Kirkpatrick. Dr. Kirkpatrick, witness for appellee, testified that his examination revealed that appellee was totally blind in his right eye, that ap-pellee’s loss of vision in the right eye is so complete that he can not distinguish the brightest light from total darkness, and that such condition is the result of the in[453]*453juries sustained September 9th and was not caused from any disease; that appellee was not suffering from choroiditis, or any other disease. Appellee testified that there was “nothing wrong” with his right eye or its vision prior to his injury, and that continuously since the injury he has been totally blind in that eye. Dr.

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152 S.W.2d 451, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-employers-casualty-co-v-hudson-texapp-1941.