WANDA PETROLEUM COMPANY v. Hahn

489 S.W.2d 428, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2099
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 29, 1972
Docket704
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 489 S.W.2d 428 (WANDA PETROLEUM COMPANY v. Hahn) 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
WANDA PETROLEUM COMPANY v. Hahn, 489 S.W.2d 428, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2099 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinions

OPINION

SHARPE, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment rendered after jury trial awarding a recovery of $772.00 to Cynthia Jean Hickl Hahn, plaintiff-appellee, against appellants Wanda Petroleum Company and Clifford L. Monday, and denying a recovery to the other plaintiffs.

This suit was brought by Edward L. Hickl, Sr., individually and as next friend for Cynthia Jean Hickl, a minor, and by Edward L. Hickl, Jr. against Wanda Petroleum Company, a corporation, and Clifford L. Monday, its employee. After the suit was filed- Cynthia Jean Hickl was married to Charles Hahn. For the purposes of this opinion she will be referred to as Cynthia Jean Hickl.

The basic facts may be summarized as follows: On January 17, 1970, in Refugio County, an automobile owned by Edward L. Hickl, Sr., which was operated by Edward L. Hickl, Jr. and occupied by Cynthia Jean Hickl, who was riding in the right front seat, collided with a disabled truck owned by Wanda Petroleum Company. Clifford L. Monday was the driver of ap[429]*429pellant’s truck. Appellee and her brother, Edward L. Hickl, Jr. were students at Texas A & I College in Kingsville, Texas and were returning to their home in Bay City, Texas, when the collision occurred. At that time, Edward L. Hickl, Jr. was 22 years of age and Cynthia Jean Hickl was four years younger, or 18 years of age. Appellants’ truck had experienced motor trouble and was stopped in the right lane of the highway, the same lane in which the Hickl automobile was traveling. Edward L. Hickl, Jr. testified that he was driving approximately sixty miles per hour immediately preceding the collision and that he noticed a blinking red light and reflectors as he approached the disabled truck. The testimony also reflected that the night was foggy and hampered Edward L. Hickl in identifying and locating the parked object. As a result of this collision, appellee Cynthia Jean Hickl sustained personal injuries.

The case was tried to a jury and in answer to the controlling special issues the jury found that:

(A) Clifford L. Monday was negligent in leaving the parked truck when it was not safe to do so and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the accident in question;
(B) Clifford L. Monday was negligent in leaving the truck unattended for a longer period of time than was necessary and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the accident in question;
(C) Edward L. Hickl, Jr. was negligent in failing to keep a proper lookout;
(D) Edward L. Hickl, Jr. was negligent in failing to make such application of the brakes as a person of ordinary care would have made under the same or similar circumstances;
(E) Edward L. Hickl, Jr. was negligent in driving at a greater rate of speed than a person of ordinary prudence in the exercise of ordinary care would have driven under the same or similar circumstances ;
(F)Edward L. Hickl, Jr. was negligent in failing to turn to the left a sufficient degree before the collision; and that this and the preceding acts of negligence were a proximate cause of the collision.

Special Issue No. 21 and the jury answer thereto read as follows :

“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that on the occasion in question Edward L. Hickl, Jr., and Cynthia Hickl, had a joint interest in the object and purpose of the trip and an equal right, express or implied, to direct and control each other in the operation of the vehicle ?
Answer ‘We do’ or ‘We do not.’
Answer: ‘We do”'

The trial court, upon motion of Cynthia Jean Hickl, disregarded Special Issue No. 21 and the finding thereon and awarded $772.00 in her favor against Clifford L. Monday and Wanda Petroleum Company. The judgment also decreed that Edward L. Hickl, Sr., Edward L. Hickl, Jr., Clifford L. Monday and Wanda Petroleum Company (which corporation had filed a cross-action against Edward L. Hickl, Jr.) take nothing. We affirm.

Appellant’s sole point of error is that “The Trial Court erred in disregarding the jury’s finding in answer to Special Issue No. 21 that Edward L. Hickl, Jr. and Cynthia Jean Hickl were on a joint enterprise at the time of the accident on the ground that there is legally probative evidence sufficient to raise such factual issue for submission to the jury and to support the jury’s finding of fact.”

In Bonney v. San Antonio Transit Company, 160 Tex. 11, 325 S.W.2d 117 (1959) our Supreme Court held in part as follows:

“The cases are legion on the general question of joint enterprise, many of them by courts of this State. The established definition of joint enterprise in this jurisdiction as applicable to the facts here under review is that a joint enter[430]*430prise exists where a driver and an occupant of an automobile ‘have not only a joint interest in the object and purpose of the enterprise, but also an equal right, express or implied, to direct and control the conduct of each other in the operation of the conveyance.’ El Paso Electric Co. v. Leeper, Tex.Com.App., 60 S.W.2d 187, 189; Straffus v. Barclay, 147 Tex. 600, 219 S.W.2d 65.
As indicated above, the principal question in this appeal is whether the jury finding in answer to Special Issue No. 43 is supported by any evidence. We have concluded that it is not. That question may be narrowed by observing, first, that we do not have before us a case in which the owner was present in his own automobile driven by another, as in Straffus v. Barclay, supra; second, nor one in which a parent was present in an automobile driven by his minor child, as in Nelson v. Fulkerson, 155 Tex. 298, 286 S.W.2d 129; third, nor one in which a driver and an occupant jointly borrowed an automobile, as in El Paso Electric Co. v. Leeper, supra; fourth, nor one in which the parties were engaged in a joint business venture in which all were interested, which in some jurisdictions is regarded as creating a relationship akin to partnership. This case is one in which the owner of the automobile is also the driver on a nonbusiness trip. We are unable to discover any facts in the evidence that would support a reasonable inference that Shipler impliedly agreed to relinquish any part of his exclusive right to control the operation of his automobile.”

Although there are numerous Texas decisions involving the doctrine of joint enterprise it appears to us that Fuller v. Flanagan, 468 S.W.2d 171, 175 (Tex.Civ.App., Fort Worth 1971, writ ref’d n. r. e.) insofar as it relates to the case of Sharon Flanagan Pannell correctly states the applicable rules of law and is more closely in point on the facts than other decisions.

There it appeared that the car in which Sharon Flanagan Pannell, a minor, was riding, then being driven by Mike Flanagan, her older brother, at the time of the collision with another car, was owned by the father of said children. The jury found, among other things, that the drivers of both cars were guilty of negligence proximately causing the collision and that Mike Flanagan and Sharon Flanagan were upon a joint enterprise.

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WANDA PETROLEUM COMPANY v. Hahn
489 S.W.2d 428 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1972)

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489 S.W.2d 428, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2099, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wanda-petroleum-company-v-hahn-texapp-1972.