Court Opinion

ID: 9768067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:41:02.592684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:35.994107
License: Public Domain

CALVERT, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
I am not convinced that Bussey had a duty to keep a lookout for falling limbs and to warn Leadon thereof as an incident of or in the scope of his employment. The only evidence supporting the majority’s conclusion that he did have such a duty is that he “had been directed to watch for falling limbs” by some person whose authority to give the direction is not established or acknowledged, and that Bussey had kept a lookout and had warned Leadon of hanging or falling limbs on other occasions.
Although, as to employers subject to the Workmen’s Compensation Act but not covered by workmen’s compensation insurance, Art. 8306, Sec. 1, V.A.T.C.S., abolishes the fellow servant defense, an injured employee, as a condition to the recovery of damages from his employer must nevertheless establish negligence on the part of the employer. The employer cannot be liable for injuries caused to one employee by reason of the negligence of another, unless the negligence constitutes breach of a duty imposed upon him as an incident of or in the scope of his employment.
The majority’s conclusion in this case does not find support in Najera v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 146 Tex. 367, 207 S.W.2d 365 (1948). In that case an employee was injured when a fellow employee left a door open in breach of his duty to keep it closed under certain circumstances.
WALKER and GREENHILL, JJ., join in this dissent.