Court Opinion

ID: 9858584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:31:43.300545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:54:56.686752
License: Public Domain

On Appellant’s Motion for Rehearing.
Most careful consideration has been given to appellants’ motion for rehearing. We agree with appellants’ contention that there was no evidence to sup-, port the allegations ■ of paragraph 4 of plaintiffs’ first amended original petition to effect that defendants had notice that the terrific rain had caused the tank to float in the open pit, or that they adjusted the tank. However, we have concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s finding that defendants’ failure to test the butane gas system immediately prior to injecting butane gas into the system was negligence. Plaintiffs alleged and the evidence was sufficient to show that several weeks had elapsed between the time when defendants installed the butane system and the time when plaintiffs moved into the house and defendants turned on the butane gas. In fact, the evidence shows that at the time defendants installed the system the house was not entirely completed, and several people were still working around it. Defendants were dealing with a highly dangerous substance and were bound to exercise a degree of care com-mensúrate with the danger of the gas escaping and causing injury or damage to the person or property of others. Lane v. Community Natural Gas Co., 133 Tex. 128, 123 S.W.2d 639. Under such circumstances, apart from-any regulation of the Railroad Commission, we cannot say that it was entirely unreasonable for a jury to find that defendants were negligent in not making a test of the system before they turned on the gas. They knew that they had made no inspection since they installed the system;, and there is no evidence to show that anyone else had made such inspection. The situation is somewhat different from that where gas has been turned into a system and has been turned off and is again turned on. In the present case it was the first time the gas has been turned into the system.
Our original opinion is modified as herein indicated, and appellants’ motion for rehearing is overruled.