Court Opinion

ID: 9654687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:47:21.124377+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:12.584865
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Appellant has filed a motion for rehearing in this cause. In the motion, he asserts eight assignments of error. In the first four assignments, he argues that this Court erred in overruling his original points of error one through four. In assignments five through seven, he asserts that we erred in affirming the trial court’s judgment because: (1) as a matter of law Gulf owed Bryant, as an invitee, a duty to correct or to warn him of dangerous conditions existing on the premises; (2) there is no evidence that Bryant was injured from a danger arising from the performance of his work and (3) a fact issue existed as to whether Greenbelt would have stopped power to the transmission line if requested by Gulf to do so. We remain convinced that the disposition we have previously made of the matters covered in these assignments is correct and we overrule them.
In assignment eight, Bryant asserts that we erred in affirming the trial court’s judgment because as a matter of law Gulf retained the power to direct the independent contractor’s activity. In argument under this assignment, he says we “somehow” overlooked and failed to cite “the key evidence presented in appellant’s supplemental brief which establishes Gulf’s retention of power to direct and order Barry Max Bryant’s work.” The testimony referred to is from a deposition of B.E. Hu-stead, a production supervisor for Gulf. It is as follows:
Q. In your job as a production supervisor for Gulf — and you went on a location where you were using — strictly using an outside service company, is it fair to say that part of your duties — I mean you could tell them what to do or how to do it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you would expect them to do it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. If they were goofing off, you would tell them to get to work and get the job going?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. If you thought that they were set up with a rig improperly or not the way they should be, do you feel you would have an authority and, perhaps, a duty to tell them to set up or do the work in a different manner?
A. Yes, sir, on most situations, yes, sir.
At best, this testimony would only create a fact question as to whether Gulf might have retained the right to exercise over its independent contractor some control that is more than a general right to order the work to start or stop, to inspect progress or to receive reports. If this be the case, it was a factual issue not expressly presented to the trial court to avoid *449Gulf’s entitlement to a summary judgment. Therefore, it cannot be considered on appeal as a ground for reversal. City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671, 676-78 (Tex.1979).
We remain convinced that our original disposition of this case is correct. Bryant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.