Court Opinion

ID: 9682918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:19:34.515804+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:43.137950
License: Public Domain

DIES, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
With respect, I dissent. I believe Tex.R. Civ.P. 277 now gives the trial court discretion to submit the issues as done in this case. Certainly, Members Mutual Insurance Co. v. Muckelroy, 523 S.W.2d 77 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1975, writ ref’d n. r. e.), expressly so holds. Moreover, the law review article by Mr. Justice Pope and Mr. Lowerre [27 Sw.L.J. 577 at 581 (1973)] explains the scope of the Rule 277 as follows:
“Let us suppose a case in which the judge submits the issue, ‘On the occasion in question, was the defendant negligent?’ followed by the question conditioned upon the first answer, ‘On the occasion in question, was such negligence a proximate cause of the occurrence in question?’ Such a broad submission boggles the mind of Texas practitioners who have lived under Fox v. Dallas Hotel Co. [111 Tex. 461, 240 S.W. 517] for half a century. On the other hand, most jurisdictions would not regard such a submission as strange at all, and it would seem that the revised rule would permit that form of submission.” (Emphasis supplied)
The authors continued, supra at 590: “The rule permits the trial court to submit the negligence and contributory negligence issues as the controlling issues, or to submit these issues more specifically.”
I agree with the majority opinion that the standard of proof is different in an F.E.L.A. case. See Lavender v. Kurn, 327 U.S. 645, 653, 66 S.Ct. 740, 90 L.Ed.2d 916 *745(1945); Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 506 F.2d 315 (6th Cir. 1974). Indeed, in Rogers v. Missouri Pac. Ry. Co., 352 U.S. 500, 507, 77 S.Ct. 443, 448, 1 L.Ed.2d 493 (1957), we find:
“Under this statute the test of a jury case is simply whether the proofs justify with reason the conclusion that employer negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury or death for which damages are sought. It does not matter that, from the evidence, the jury may also with reason, on the grounds of probability, attribute the result to other causes, including the employee’s contributory negligence.”
I believe this is another reason why the form of submission used in this case is not improper.
As was said by our Supreme Court in Texas and Pacific Railway Company v. Roberts, 481 S.W.2d 798, 800 (Tex.1972):
“The purpose of the F.E.L.A. is to vest the jury with complete discretion on the factual issue of liability.
* * * * * *
“Stated another way, once the appellate court determines that the verdict is supported by some evidence about which reasonable minds could differ, the appellate court’s function is exhausted.”