Court Opinion

ID: 9643304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:24:55.033128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:58.736442
License: Public Domain

NORVELL, Justice
(concurring).
In discussing ultimate fact issues we may easily drop into a confused metaphysical situation similar to that encountered when we attempt to distinguish between a fact and a conclusion.1 The rationale of the rule of Fox v. Dallas Hotel Company, 111 Tex. 461, 240 S.W. 517 (1922) is not invariably followed even in the field of negligence law. The accepted method of submitting discovered peril is obviously inconsistent with the Fox concept of “specific acts of negligence alleged and proven,” and this is demonstrated by the issue inquiring if a locomotive engineer “failed to exercise ordinary care in the use of the means at hand consistent with the safety of himself and the train he was operating and the occupants thereof, to avoid the injury * * * ” 2
*649Similarly the issue of the failure to keep a vehicle under proper control is contrary to the argument of the Fox case, hut it need not necessarily he condemned for that reason. In Northeast Texas Motor Freight Lines v. Hodges, 138 Tex. 280, 158 S.W.2d 487 (1942) this Court held that the issue of whether a driver “on the occasion in question * * * failed to have his truck under proper control,” encompassed inquiries as to whether the driver was operating his vehicle “at such rate of speed as that he could not stop it within the range of vision,” and as to whether such driver “failed to reduce its speed upon meeting the blinding lights of an approaching automobile.” This Court said that “[t]he issue given (failure to have the track under proper control) and the two refused (above set forth) related alike to the manner in which (the driver) operated his truck immediately before” the collision and that “[t]he several inquiries under consideration were merely various phases and different shades of meaning of one ultimate * * * fact issue, that is, lack of proper control * * *.”
In Schuhmacher Co. v. Holcomb, 142 Tex. 332, 177 S.W.2d 951 (1944) this Court in effect held that the questions of whether the defendant failed to have the brakes of his automobile in good working order and whether he was negligent in causing his automobile to move to and upon his left-hand side of the highway were encompassed within the issue of whether the defendant failed to keep his automobile under proper control.
The cases of Blaugrund v. Gish, 142 Tex. 379, 179 S.W.2d 266 (1944) and Triangle Cab Co. v. Taylor, 144 Tex. 568, 192 S.W.2d 143 (1946) hold that when the specific elements of lack of proper control are given it is not necessary to submit the broader issue. In Blaugrund, however, it is olearly intimated that excessive speed immediately before the collision is an element of lack of proper control. In the Triangle Cab Company case it was held that a submission of the “lack of proper control” issue was unnecessary as the Court had submitted (1) failure to keep a proper lookout (2) excessive speed (3) operating the motorcycle, too close to the rear of a taxicab and (4) a failure to turn the motorcycle to the left. The failure to keep a proper lookout is not an element of proper control and I do not understand the Triangle Cab case to so hold. The opinion simply lists the issues given and states that all the elements of proper control raised by the evidence were submitted by the specific issues given.
When the Blaugrund and Triangle Cab cases are read with Northeast Motor Freight Lines v. Hodges and Schumacher v. Holcomb, a rather definite concept of “lack of proper control” emerges. The critical time involved in the inquiry is that existing immediately before the collision. Lack of proper control at such time includes the following elements, (1) the driving of a motor vehicle in a defective condition which renders it difficult or impossible for a driver to properly control the car under the attendant circumstances, such as driving an automobile with defective brakes, (2) the driving of a motor vehicle at such speed as renders its proper control difficult or impossible, such as the driving of a vehicle at a rate of speed that would prevent the driver from stopping the car within the range of his vision, or by following too closely behind another vehicle, and (3) the failure of the driver to properly guide the course of the vehicle when collision became imminent, such as failure to drive the car either to the right or to the left.
I recognize that the “lack of proper control” issue is global in nature and that there is considerable force to the argument that *650this type of issue should not be used in a special issue practice. But we have good precedent for the use of broad and inclusive issues under certain circumstances and it is a desirable objective to restrict the number of issues to be given in negligence cases. I would not extend the scope of the lack of proper control issues beyond those elements which have heretofore been recognized by this Court and those which are fairly encompassed within such opinions. I would, however, hold it permissible to submit the “lack of proper control” issue provided it be restricted by proper definition to such of the elements above mentioned as are raised by the evidence.
So far as the judgment in this particular case is concerned I concur in the Court’s action in affirming the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals which reverses the judgment of the trial court. This, for the reason that at least two important elements of the “lack of proper control” issue were specifically submitted, namely, driving the truck with improper brakes and a failure to properly steer such truck when collision was imminent. While, in my opinion, a party should be allowed to submit the broad “lack of proper control” issue, he should not also be permitted to submit specific issues inquiring as to the various elements encompassed within the concept of proper control. This would be obviously unfair. A party would have an opportunity to prevail upon the answers to specific issues and failing in this, contend that nevertheless he was entitled to prevail upon an unsub-mitted element of lack of proper control should he receive a favorable answer to •such broader issue. A litigant must either go global or specific. He cannot go both ways.

. “A comparatively slight acquaintance with formal metaphysics is enough to assure us that the apparently simplest ‘fact’ is indeed a conclusion, involving in its affirmation an inference from certain impressions of the sense upon the assumption of a major premise, itself the creature of past experience.” Learned Hand, “Historical and Practical Considerations regarding Expert Testimony”, 15 Harvard Law Review, 40, 50.

. See Sisti v. Thompson, 149 Tex. 189, 229 S.W.2d 610, l.c. 613, (1950) in which the above language appears in an issue quoted in the opinion. The Court held, however, that another issue of the discovered peril group of issues was defective because it was too inclusive or global *649ia nature. It is sometimes far from dear whether an issue is global, ultimate or simply the result of a granulation of an ultimate issue. This difficulty is inherent in the special issue practice and henee precedent or what has been approved heretofore is important in this area. Such precedents should not he disturbed in the absence of demonstrated inadequacy or malfunction.