Court Opinion

ID: 9653875
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:57:37.885395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:03.105528
License: Public Domain

MURPHY, Justice,
dissenting.
I agree that from the contract language the jury could reasonably conclude that Kirby retained a sufficient degree of control over the contract woodcutter’s work to give rise to the Redinger exception. I also believe there is some evidence in the record to support the jury’s answer to Special Issue No. 2(b) establishing negligence and such answer was not against the overwhelming weight of this evidence. On the issue of proximate cause, however, I would find the jury’s answer to be against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
Proximate cause encompasses the elements of cause in fact and foreseeability. Williams v. Steves Indus., Inc., 699 S.W.2d 570, 575 (Tex.1985). Cause in fact means that the negligent act at issue (here, failing to provide for proper safety rules and procedures for the cutting and felling of trees) was a substantial factor in producing the injury, and without such negligence no harm would have resulted. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Corp., 690 S.W.2d 546, 549 (Tex.1985). Foreseeability means that the actor as a person of ordinary intelligence, should have anticipated the danger of his act to others. Id. at 549-50. However, foreseeability does not require that the actor foresee the particular accident or injury which in fact occurs. Trinity River Auth. v. Williams, 689 S.W.2d 883, 886 (Tex.1985). Nor does foreseeability require that the actor anticipate just how the injury will grow out of a particular dangerous situation. Clark v. Waggoner, 452 S.W.2d 437, 440 (Tex.1970). All that is required is that the injury be of such a general character as might reasonably have been anticipated and that the injured party be so situated with relation to the wrongful act that injury might reasonably have been foreseen. Motsenbocker v. Wyatt, 369 S.W.2d 319, 323 (Tex.1963).
I will not reiterate the testimony relied upon by Justice Robertson to find there to be no evidence, or that relied upon by the majority to be factually sufficient, but in my view the evidence does not support a finding that failure to provide for proper *242safety rules and procedures for the cutting and felling of trees was a substantial factor in producing the injury suffered by appellee or that proper safety rules and procedures would have resulted in no harm to appellee.
I would also sustain points of error five and six. I find there to be no evidence that Kirby’s contractual specifications provided that trees be “smooth cut.” The specifications did provide that the butts and log ends be cut squarely and smooth. While several witnesses testified that despite the language in the specifications, Kirby encouraged the use of the “smooth cut,” that requirement is simply not in the specifications.
I agree with the majority in all other respects.