Court Opinion

ID: 9777708
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:20:48.957184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:59.966401
License: Public Domain

TAFT, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
To uphold the jury’s determination that Palais Royal was 100 percent liable, the majority opinion relies on Palais Royal’s interrogatory answers that, at times, denied any party other than Frank Gunnels was at fault. While this may be sufficient to avoid a legal sufficiency challenge, a neutral view of all of the evidence compels the conclusion that the jury’s verdict was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence and manifestly unjust. See Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex. 1986)(stating standard of review).
There is no denying that Palais Royal was responsible for the original construction, in 1984, of the ladder from which Gunnels fell. At the time of the fall in 1992, however, Gunnels was a subcontractor on a remodeling job. The general contractor, H.A. Lott, was in charge of safety on the job site where the ladder was located. The only person who ever expressed doubts about the ladder, pri- or to Gunnels’s fall, was Larry Sowell, an employee of Gunnels. Sowell had told Todd Scott, assistant superintendent for H.A. Lott, that the ladder was “real awkward.” H.A Lott’s superintendent, Carl Price, considered the ladder safe, however. So did all the Palais Royal employees who had used it for eight years without incident.
Palais Royal’s expert, Michael Adams, testified that H.A. Lott was negligent for not identifying the ladder as a safety hazard. As set out in the majority opinion, Adams also testified the ladder was so far out of compliance with acceptable standards that it was inherently hazardous. Nevertheless, Price, who had the most authority over safety on the job site and to whom safety was a full-time job, had personally climbed the ladder and thought it safe. Thus, he never considered posting warnings of any hazard.
Under these circumstances, the jury’s verdict that Palais Royal was 100 percent liable for the injuries suffered by Frank Gunnels is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust. Accordingly, I would sustain Palais Royal’s point of error C.8. Therefore, I concur in the reversal as to exemplary damages, but dissent from the affirmance of the trial *856court’s judgment in all other respects.1

. I join in all portions of the majority opinion except for the discussion of point of error C.8.