Van Cleave v. Robertson Tank Lines, Inc.

454 S.W.2d 785, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 26, 1970
DocketNo. 15605
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 454 S.W.2d 785 (Van Cleave v. Robertson Tank Lines, 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
Van Cleave v. Robertson Tank Lines, Inc., 454 S.W.2d 785, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

COLEMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment for appellee, rendered by the trial court notwithstanding a jury verdict favoring the appellants. A truck owned by appellee was parked on a public street by Alfred Dean Donaghey, who was employed by appellee as a driver. Some hours later an automobile driven by Acie Van Cleave, crashed into the truck, the said Acie Van Cleave receiving injuries resulting in his death.

After having parked the truck Donaghey left it unattended while he visited with his father and visited taverns with his cousin. He returned to the truck after dark and started the motor in order to build up pressure. While waiting he went to a cafe nearby for coffee. The accident occurred during his absence.

The jury found that at the time Donaghey parked the truck on the paved portion of the highway he was acting in the scope of his employment. The jury also found that there were no signal lights burning on the truck, and that the driver’s failure to turn on the signal lights when he returned to the truck after dark was negligence and a proximate cause of the collision. The jury further found that at the time the driver returned to the truck and started the same for the purpose of building up the air pressure and warming the engine, he was acting in the scope of his employment.

The trial court sustained the motion of Robertson Tank Lines, Inc., to disregard the answers to Special Issues 3 and 8, pertaining to scope of employment, and to enter a judgment in its favor. The judgment recites that the trial court found as a matter of law that the jury should have answered both issues “We do not.”

Appellants have presented eight points of error, all based on the proposition that the trial court erred in disregarding the answers to Issues 3 and 8, and in holding as a matter of law that the driver was not in the course and scope of his employment at the time mentioned in those issues. Appel-lee has filed no cross-points.

If there is evidence sufficient to raise the issues on scope of employment submitted to the jury, the court erred in disregarding the answers made by the jury to these issues.

In Broaddus v. Long, 135 Tex. 353, 138 S.W.2d 1057 (1940), the court said: “* * In order to render the master liable for the act of his servant, such act must be committed within the scope of the general authority of the servant, in furtherance of the master’s business, and for the accomplishment of the object for which the servant is employed. * * * ”

In determining whether there is evidence sufficient to raise the issues disregarded by the trial court, we can only consider the evidence and inferences therefrom favorable to appellants. Facts conceded or established as a matter of law must be considered. White v. White, 141 Tex. 328, 172 S.W.2d 295 (1943). This rule, however, does not apply when we consider whether a party has introduced evidence sufficient to rebut or counteract a true presumption raised by operation of law.

Donaghey testified that after unloading he called Mr. Dunn, the manager of appel-lee’s terminal in Corpus Christi, who instructed him to return to the terminal. He also testified that he could “gauge” his own time in returning and that he could eat or rest when he desired. He usually picked the route for a trip without supervision. He testified that there was a route to Corpus Christi other than the one he had used in bringing the load to Champion, which was slightly longer, but there was no evidence that he had taken this route at the time he drove to the Ram Gun plant, where his father was employed. He said that at the time he parked the truck he was working for appellee. His testimony that he was not engaged in doing anything for [787]*787his employer in making the drive to the Ram Gun plant, but was making the drive solely for the purpose of visiting his father, was clear and positive. His intention was a matter about which only he could testify. This testimony could not be readily controverted. There was a cafe near the Ram Gun plant. He parked the truck at about 11:30 o’clock A.M.

There is some evidence that when Dona-ghey parked the truck he was acting within the general scope of his authority, but it cannot reasonably be inferred that he acted in furtherance of the master’s business, and for the accomplishment of the object for which he was employed. The testimony that he was working for appellee at the time he parked the truck did not constitute evidence even though admitted without objection. The statement was a “bare” conclusion without probative force. Casualty Underwriters v. Rhone, 134 Tex. 50, 132 S.W.2d 97 (1939).

From the map in evidence we can see that he was driving in a northerly direction. The route to Corpus Christi would lie in a southeasterly direction from Odessa. There can be no inference that Dona-ghey was engaged in driving the truck back to the terminal at the time he decided to park it near the Ram Gun plant.

While there is testimony that there was danger in leaving a truck parked in the nighttime without lights, since appellants have produced no evidence that the driver was acting in the course and scope of his employment and to further his employer’s business and affairs when he parked the truck, the fact that he was acting to further the interests of his employer when he returned to the truck and started the motor in preparation for its removal to his father’s house will not support a finding that he was then acting in the scope of his employment. It was incumbent on appellants to produce evidence indicating that it was not Donaghey’s own wrong that placed the truck in the position of peril. We consider the question foreclosed by the case of Southwest Dairy Products Co. v. DeFrates, 132 Tex. 556, 125 S.W.2d 282 (Tex.1939). There the Court said:

“ * * * when a servant completely departs from his work to accomplish some purpose of his own not connected with his employment, the relation of master and servant is thereby temporarily suspended and the master is not liable for his acts during the period of such suspension. * * *
* * * Of course, the purpose in the mind of Henderson while on the return trip was to take up the duties of his employment, but the master’s liability does not rest alone upon the purpose in the mind of the servant. The test of liability is whether he was engaged in his master’s business and not whether he purposed to resume it. It is equally true that Henderson owed the duty to his master of returning the car and resuming his employment and, while returning to the zone of his employment, he was discharging that duty, but that fact does not fix liability against the master. It was Henderson’s own wrong in driving away that created the duty to return, and in returning he was but undoing that wrong. The return was referable to, and an incident of the departure. He was no more engaged in his master’s business while returning to, than while departing from his path of duty.”

It was admitted that Donaghey was employed by Robertson at the time of the collision, and that the tank truck involved was owned by Robertson. From these facts a presumption arises that Donaghey was acting within the course of his employment and in the furtherance of his employer’s business at the time of the collision. M. K. Hall Company v. Caballero, 358 S.W.2d 179 (Tex.Civ.App.-Eastland 1962, writ ref’d, n. r. e.).

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Related

Robertson Tank Lines, Inc. v. Van Cleave
468 S.W.2d 354 (Texas Supreme Court, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
454 S.W.2d 785, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-cleave-v-robertson-tank-lines-inc-texapp-1970.