Court Opinion

ID: 9676785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:33:09.946323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:51.161735
License: Public Domain

MOTION FOR REHEARING
In appellant’s Motion for Rehearing complaint is made that the opinion of this court on Point of Error No. 2 in this cause is in direct conflict with the holding of the Court of Civil Appeals at Houston in the case of A. B. Lewis Co. v. Robinson, 339 S.W.2d 731. Point of Error No. 2 sets out that the trial court’s Special Issue No. 1 - presents a question of law in asking the jury whether Parker was entitled to possession of the casing involved in this litigation on January 2, 1958. The Special Issue No. 1 complained of as submitted to the jury inquired :
“Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the Plaintiff Parker was in possession of, or entitled to the possession of the 5½ inch casing in question on the 2nd day of January, 1958?”
to which the jury replied “We do”. In connection with this special issue the court gave a definition of the word “possession”. We held, on the authority of Home Ins. Co. of New York v. Young, 97 S.W.2d 360, Syl. 10 (Tex.Civ.App., err. dism.), that the definition of the word "possession” rendered the issue a fact issue for the jury, and cured any objection to said special issue.
*843In the A. B. Lewis Co. v. Robinson case, cited by appellant, the Houston Court of Civil Appeals held that “[t]he jury’s finding to Special Issue No. 1, that on February 22, 1957 appellee was entitled to possession of the car, is not a finding of fact but of law, and should be disregarded”. However, there is nothing to indicate from the opinion that the trial court defined the word “possession” or the term “entitled to possession”, and we feel that such circumstance distinguishes the cited case from the case at hand.
Appellant’s Motion for Rehearing is overruled.