Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Ard

991 S.W.2d 518, 1999 WL 378319
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 15, 1999
Docket09-97-361CV
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 991 S.W.2d 518 (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Ard) 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
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Ard, 991 S.W.2d 518, 1999 WL 378319 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

DON BURGESS Justice.

This appeal arises from a premises liability cause of action filed by Ruby and J.C. Ard • against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Ruby was injured when a portable basketball goal at the Wal-Mart Store in Wood-ville, Texas, fell over, striking her in the head, neck and shoulder area. The jury awarded Ruby $150,000 in damages and awarded J.C. $15,000 in damages. Wal-Mart appeals raising three issues.

In its first issue, Wal-Mart contends there is no evidence, or alternatively insufficient evidence, to support an award of loss of earning capacity. Within this issue Wal-Mart makes several arguments. First, there is no evidence of loss of earning capacity in the past. Second, the evidence is factually insufficient to support an award for loss of earning capacity in the future. Third, because there is no evidence, loss of earning capacity as an element of damages should not have been submitted to the jury.

Regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s award, the question submitted to the jury asked for separate amounts for damages sustained in the past and damages that will be sustained in the future, but called for a total damage amount as to all of the elements of damage rather than for a specific amount *520 as to each element. The elements listed entailed not only loss of earning capacity but also physical pain and mental anguish, physical impairment, and medical care. We first decide whether an evidentiary review of a single element is appropriate when damages were not segregated.

As the court recognized in Greater Houston Transp. Co., Inc. v. Zrubeck, 850 S.W.2d 579 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1993, writ denied),

... [W]hen a damages issue is submitted in broad-form, an appellate court cannot ascertain with certainty what amount of the damages award is attributable to each element. Furthermore, when the elements of actual damages considered by the jury include the more amorphous, discretionary damages, e.g., mental anguish, pain and suffering, physical impairment and disfigurement, any amount awarded above the more definitive damages, such as past medical expenses and lost wages, will be shunted to the discretionary domain of the jury. Thus, under the current practice, a meaningful review on appeal of damages questions submitted in broad-form is extremely difficult.
The only way that a defendant can successfully attack a multi-element damages award on appeal is to address each and every element and show that not a single element is supported by sufficient evidence. If there is just one element that is supported by the evidence, the damages award will be affirmed if it is supported by the evidence.

Id. at 589 (citations omitted) (footnote omitted). The Zrubeck court held Greater Houston had “waived any complaint concerning the sufficiency of the evidence regarding actual damages by failing to request findings on each element of damages, and by failing to address all of the elements of damage in its argument.” Id. The Zrubeck court then determined whether the aggregate evidence supporting the elements in the question was sufficient to support the jury’s assessment of damages. Id. at 589-90.

The approach taken by the court in Zrubeck has been adopted by many other courts of appeal, including this one. See Cal-Tex. Lumber Co., Inc. v. Owens Handle Co., Inc., 989 S.W.2d 802, 814-15 (Tex.App.—Tyler 1999, n.p.h.); Goodman v. Page, 984 S.W.2d 299, 304 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1998, n.p.h.); City of Port Isabel v. Shiba, 976 S.W.2d 856, 858-59 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1998, pet. denied); City of Beaumont v. Gallien, 949 S.W.2d 57 (Tex.App.—Beaumont 1997) (not designated for publication). 1 Price v. Short, 931 S.W.2d 677, 688 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1996, no writ); Pitman v. Lightfoot, 937 S.W.2d 496, 524-25 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1996, writ denied); and Haryanto v. Saeed, 860 S.W.2d 913, 921-22 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, writ denied).

In Cal-Tex, the court noted Cal-Tex did not object to the court’s broad form submission on the damages issue. Cal-Tex., 989 S.W.2d at 815-16. The court found that with the exception of Cal-Tex’s complaint that the element of lost profits was as a matter of law too speculative to have been submitted to the jury, Cal-Tex had waived its legal sufficiency complaints as to specific elements of damages. Id. The court determined that as a consequence, except for lost profits, it was limited to a factual sufficiency review of damages. Id.

The Corpus Christi Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed Zrubeck in City of Port Isabel, 976 S.W.2d at 858-59. The court noted that the City contested some components of the damages award, but did not attack “each and every element.” Id. Because other damages, not challenged by the City, were supported by the evidence the court affirmed the jury’s determination of damages. Id. 2

*521 Likewise, in Pitman, the court determined appellants had failed to challenge all of the elements of damages. Pitman, 937 S.W.2d at 524-25. The Pitman court noted that if at least one element of damages was supported by legally and factually sufficient evidence, appellants would lose their sufficiency challenge. Id.

In contrast, in Goodman, the appellants did “address each and every element” in challenging the multi-element damages award. Goodman, 984 S.W.2d at 304-06 (quoting Zrubeck, 850 S.W.2d at 589). Accordingly, the Goodman court considered the factual and legal sufficiency of the evidence to support each element and affirmed the damages award. Id. at 305-07.

In Price, the court found that because Price failed to address all the elements of damages, he waived his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, and concluded that if Price had preserved his complaint, the court would have held that the damages award was supported by sufficient evidence. Price, 931 S.W.2d at 688. However, the court went on to address the merits of Price’s complaint, conducted a review of the sufficiency of the evidence, and concluded that if Price had preserved his complaint, the court would have held that the damages award was supported by sufficient evidence. Id.

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991 S.W.2d 518, 1999 WL 378319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wal-mart-stores-inc-v-ard-texapp-1999.