Court Opinion

ID: 9667681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:52:07.888885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:39.764682
License: Public Domain

BOYD, Justice,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I agree that appellants’ points of error two through five should be overruled and that the take-nothing judgment in favor of Sylvester Medina and Steere Tank Lines, Inc. should be affirmed. Furthermore, I agree with Justice Dodson that appellants’ first point of error should likewise be overruled.
*186In their first point of error, appellants contend the trial court erred in granting Diamond Shamrock’s motion for summary-judgment. The plaintiffs suit is based on claims of negligence. Diamond Shamrock had asserted its motion for summary judgment on the ground that there was no genuine issue of fact as to the absence of a legal duty owed by Diamond Shamrock.
The common law doctrine of negligence requires three elements: (1) a legal duty owed by one person to another; (2) a breach of that duty; and (3) damages proximately resulting from that breach. Because a plaintiff must establish both the existence and the violation of a duty owed to the plaintiff to show liability in tort, the threshold inquiry in a negligence case must be duty, the determination of which is a question of law for the court to decide from the facts surrounding the occurrence in. question. Greater Houston Transp. Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523, 525 (Tex.1990). In making its determination, a court must consider several interrelated factors, including the risk, foreseeability, and likelihood of injury. Of these factors, foreseeability of the risk is the foremost and dominant consideration. Id. at 525. The test of foreseeability is “what one should under the circumstances reasonably anticipate as consequences of his conduct.” City of Dallas v. Maxwell, 248 S.W. 667, 670 (Tex.Comm’n App.1923, holding approved).
Diamond Shamrock relies in part upon the rule that a person is not bound to anticipate the negligence or unlawful conduct of another. See De Winne v. Allen, 154 Tex. 316, 277 S.W.2d 95, 98 (1955). However, that is a general rule with limited exceptions which may arise where a person owes a duty because of the foreseeability of such conduct of another. See e.g., El Chico Corp. v. Poole, 732 S.W.2d 306 (Tex.1987) (sale of alcohol to intoxicated person); Schneider v. Esperanza Transmission Co., 744 S.W.2d 595 (Tex.1987) (negligent entrustment claim). However, this is not a case falling within one of those limited exceptions because there was no summary judgment evidence which indicates that Diamond Shamrock should have reasonably foreseen that as a result of its actions the truck drivers loading at its facility would engage in negligent or unlawful conduct.
That being so, the remaining question is whether it was reasonably foreseeable that an automobile accident would occur in the absence of negligence of the truck drivers which weighed and loaded at Diamond Shamrock’s facilities. Justice Poff answers in the affirmative. I, however, respectfully disagree.
The summary judgment evidence established that Shamrock had physical facilities on the north and south sides of Farm Road 119 (the highway). In order to haul a load of asphalt, a truck driver would have to weigh his empty truck at the facilities on the north side of the road. Then the driver would have to drive “a hundred and something feet” on the highway to enter the gate on the south side of Diamond Shamrock facilities, where the truck would be loaded with asphalt. Viewing the evidence in favor of the nonmovant of the summary judgment, it indicates such a driver would not be able to travel more than ten miles an hour between the two locations.1 To enter the southside facilities, the driver would have to turn left across the highway.
Justice Poff concludes:
The Carters allege and the facts prove that a truck, in loading asphalt at Shamrock’s plant, must turn right onto the highway, travel a short distance at ten miles per hour and then turn left from the highway into Shamrock’s plant. The record reveals that this movement, even when done with care, can and did result in a catastrophic accident.... Viewing the record, I cannot find as a matter of law that Shamrock owed Jimmy no duty in the placement of the plant gates. 835 S.W.2d at 181 (emphasis added).
I respectfully disagree with that conclusion. Reiterated, in a negligence suit, the existence of duty is a question of law for *187the court to decide from the facts surrounding the occurrence in question. Greater Houston Transp. Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523, 525 (Tex.1990). The pertinent question presented is not whether an accident could or did result, but whether an accident was reasonably foreseeable. However tempting it might be to apply a “can and did” test, to do so would be to replace foreseeability with hindsight. Any occurrence, however improbable, which actually occurs would satisfy such a duty inquiry. I can only conclude that, under the summary judgment evidence, an accident was not reasonably foreseeable. That being true, the trial court did not err in its judgment.
I find that appellants’ first point of error should be overruled and the trial court’s take-nothing judgment in favor of Diamond Shamrock be affirmed.

. Sylvester Medina, the truck driver involved in the accident in question, testified in his deposition that he was driving ten miles an hour when he started to make his turn and that he was not able to pick up any speed.