Court Opinion

ID: 9775916
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:12:42.284148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:32.018788
License: Public Domain

GAMMAGE, Justice.
I concur in the other parts of the majority opinion on rehearing, but I cannot agree with the conclusion in Part III that the employer is not liable. I consequently dissent to that part of the opinion. Colwell should recover on the jury verdict against Eastex.
*871At the outset let me say I find some statements in the majority opinion confusing and unsupported. The majority asserts that negligence theories other than Eastex’s failure to provide an adequate work force were not supported by the pleadings or the facts. But, regarding Eastex’s liability as Colwell’s employer, every theory that finds any support in the evidence is before this court, as it was before the trial court.
Although there were specific pleadings asserting insurance theories of recovery, those do not affect the broad negligence theory pleaded against Eastex, Karlo Werner and I.M. Werner. This pleading was in the broadest possible terms of “negligence” which “proximately caused” harm. No special exceptions were ever made to this broad negligence pleading. In these circumstances this court is compelled to liberally construe the pleading to support the jury verdict based on any type of negligence that has support in the evidence. Scott v. Gardner, 137 Tex. 628, 156 S.W.2d 513, 515 (1941). The majority may not pick “inadequate workforce” as the sole negligence theory it assumes was intended and ignore the rest. The court may not properly conclude “that Colwell’s only theory of negligence was that Eastex failed to provide an adequate work force.” 909 S.W.2d at 869.
Moreover, the majority ignores the standard for our review of no evidence points. This court must review the whole record for evidence and reasonable inferences from that evidénce to support the jury verdict, and disregard the rest. Stafford v. Stafford, 726 S.W.2d 14, 16 (Tex.1987); Garza v. Alviar, 895 S.W.2d 821, 823 (Tex.1965).
Eastex failed to assert any objection to the jury charge and broad questions the court submitted, and to which the jury answered Eastex was negligent and proximately caused Colwell damages of $298,000. There is no limitation whatsoever in this submission.
On appeal Eastex contends there is no evidence of negligence. It offers two arguments under this point — that there was no evidence of breach of a duty, and no evidence of proximate cause because there was no evidence of foreseeability.
As a medical expert Dr. LaPerrierre testified that back injuries are commonly caused in the workplace by lifting and handling heavy weights. The physician further testified that he did the pre-employment screening and physicals for many companies in the area, and that Colwell’s back injury from the lifting incident would disqualify her from employment with these other employers. The reasonable inference from his testimony is that employers in the area knew or should have known of the danger of such injuries to their employees doing moderate to heavy lifting. Certainly the danger of lifting 60 to 100 pound slabs of meat as a job duty is reasonably inferable from his testimony. Ironically, the majority cites Cabrera v. Delta Brands, a case in which the jury was allowed to conclude from common experience that lifting a hundred-pound weight just once was a dangerous condition for one’s job.
There is also extensive testimony describing how Eastex employees went about their lifting duties. In the presence of their supervisor Karlo Werner or his wife, and therefore with employer knowledge, they lifted the heavy meat by hand. They did not use back braces or mechanical devices to aid the heavy lifting. Karlo Werner testified this was the “usual” way for them “to do the loading” and that “it was not unusual for eveiyone to help load the truck” then “because there were hard economical times.” The jury could draw the reasonable inference that Eastex declined to provide back braces or mechanical aids for lifting to save costs. Contrary to the majority’s inference against the jury verdict, I believe the jury could properly conclude from Karlo’s testimony that he and other male employees customarily did the heavy lifting of the 60 to 100 pound big slabs of meat, that such lifting was a strain and danger to Colwell and her female co-worker, and that the jury could reach these conclusions without further express testimony about how much each of the women weighed, or could lift, or whatever other unreasonable requirements the majority now places on *872such injured workers to establish their claims.
Eastex as the employer, the majority concedes, had the duty to provide a safe workplace. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Coker, 146 Tex. 190, 204 S.W.2d 977, 978 (1947). Heavy lifting of sixty pounds or more was commonplace and a job duty of Colwell and other employees. It was foreseeable that this job environment, without protective measures for heavy lifting, could cause back injury such as that suffered by Colwell. The jury was entitled to draw this reasonable inference.
Reliance on the Great Atlantic case is misplaced. That the lifting was part of the “normal” job duties should not excuse the employer. Otherwise, all an employer would have to do to avoid liability for known dangers would be to make any task part of the “usual” job duties. By simply defining it as part of the job for the employee to expose herself to a known danger, according to the majority, the employer is relieved from all responsibility. Especially with respect to back injuries, it is clear employers in Texas have not escaped liability on such a theory for many years. See, e.g., Exxon Corp. v. Roberts, 724 S.W.2d 863, 867 (Tex.App.—Texarkana 1986, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Cabrera v. Delta Brands, Inc., 538 S.W.2d 795 (Tex.Civ.App.—Texarkana 1976, writ ref'd n.r.e.). The Great Atlantic case should appropriately be read as holding that when there is no evidence that the lifting involved poses a threat of injury, then the plaintiff has failed to establish a prima facie ease. See Western Union v. Coker, 204 S.W.2d at 978. This court should not relegate reasonable inferences and common knowledge about back injuries to what they were held to be before the 1920s.
Karlo testified it was his job duty to do the heavy lifting. On the accident date Karlo became intoxicated and left Eastex before lunch. He took this action, at his wife’s insistence, even though he knew that a large order of meat was to be picked up that day. He further knew that, once he left, there would be no one on duty who customarily did the heavy lifting to help the women lift the meat order onto the truck. It was reasonably foreseeable that Colwell or her female co-worker could be injured while moving the heavy order. See Cabrera v. Delta Brands, 538 S.W.2d at 799. Karlo, as the employer’s agent, could reasonably foresee and had reason to anticipate an injury suffered by Col-well as a result of loading the meat. See Id. As supervisor, Karlo’s actions affecting the safety of the workplace were those of Eastex. Eastex’s negligence with respect to the safety of the work environment rests essentially upon its reasonable anticipation of Colwell’s injury and Eastex’s failure to perform the duty arising because of that anticipation, and not on some abstract “inadequate workforce” theory. See Id. In my view there was legally sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that Eastex’s negligence proximately caused Colwell’s injury.
For these reasons I dissent to Part III of the majority’s opinion.