Court Opinion

ID: 9774635
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:27:53.608543+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:56:05.212713
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Appellee urges that our opinion is in conflict with Superior Ins. Co. v. Jackson, 156 Tex. 61, 291 S.W.2d 689; Kimbrough v. Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America, Tex.Civ.App., 168 S.W.2d 708, err. ref., and Employers Reinsurance Corp. v. Brooks, Tex.Civ.App., 165 S.W.2d 785, err. ref. We have carefully reviewed those opinions, because if the facts in any of them were analogous to the facts shown by the record before us we would feel constrained to sustain the motion for rehearing and. affirm the judgment of the court below. However, we do not consider that such analogy exists.
In the Jackson case the claimant was employed as a mechanic to repair trucks and other machinery used in road construction. He used his own light truck to carry his and his employer’s tools to various points along the highway in the performance of his duties. A truck of his employer was available for this purpose, but he preferred to use his own. He was injured while working on his own truck at his own home on a Sunday, and the Supreme Court very properly held that he was not in the course of his employment. The several differences between that case and this are readily discernible, (1) Jackson preferred to use his own vehicle, although one owned by his employer was available; but the only reason Brown intended to use his car was that the employer’s would not run and could not be repaired on the premises, (2) Jackson’s work was being done on a Sunday and on his own time, for which he was not being paid, when he was not on duty nor subject to call; but Brown’s work was being done on a work day, during working hours, and at a time when he was on duty as caretaker or at least subject to call, (3) Jackson was working on his own premises, while Brown’s work was being done on his employer’s premises where he was required to be by the terms of his employment.
In Kimbrough, the employee used his own car to drive to and from work. One morning, while on the employer’s premises and awaiting the arrival of his foreman, he was injured while trying to locate the cause of a certain noise in his car. On previous occasions, when there had been a breakdown in the plant, Kimbrough had used his car to go to town for replacement parts, but he had no intention of making such use of it on the morning in question. It was properly held that he was not injured while in the course of his employment.
The Brooks case was one in which the employee, whose job was to tie bundles of *677flooring behind a flooring machine, turned aside from his employment when the machine broke down and, there being no duty for him to perform for his employer while the machine was being repaired, was attempting to make a hammer handle for his own use. He was using another of his employer’s machines, on the employer’s premises. It was held that Brooks “was not engaged in the master’s business, but in an enterprise of his own without his employer’s knowledge or consent.”
We think the inapplicability of the Kim-brough and Brooks cases will be readily seen. Kimbrough and Brown were both on their employer’s premises when injured, and both were repairing their private cars, but Brown was also simultaneously performing a duty for his employer (of watching over the cemetery and being available for any other duty his employer might call on him to perform), and says he was repairing his own car so it could be used in the employer’s business, while Kimbrough was wholly on his own time, not subject to call by his employer, and was doing his work wholly for his own benefit. It is obvious that Brooks would not have received the injury complained of had he not turned aside from his master’s work and commenced other work in which his master had no interest whatsoever.
This case is controlled by such decisions as Lumberman’s Reciprocal Association v. Behnken, 112 Tex. 103, 246 S.W. 72, 28 A.L.R. 1402; Kirby Lumber Co. v. Scurlock, 112 Tex. 115, 246 S.W. 76; United East & West Oil Co. v. Dyer, 139 Tex. 318, 162 S.W .2d 680; Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Lawrence, Tex.Civ.App., 14 S.W.2d 949, err. ref.; and Federal Surety Co. v. Ragle, (Tex.Com.App.) 40 S.W.2d 63.
We think we should make clear that wherever in the foregoing discussion we state that appellant Brown did or was doing certain things these are not findings of facts by this Court, but are merely recitations of certain statements contained m affidavits filed by appellant in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, which we must accept as true for the purpose of testing the propriety of sustaining the said motion.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.