Houston News Co. v. Shavers
Citation | 64 S.W.2d 384 |
Decision Date | 19 October 1933 |
Docket Number | No. 1430.,1430. |
Parties | HOUSTON NEWS CO. et al. v. SHAVERS. |
Court | Court of Appeals of Texas |
Appeal from District Court, Harris County; Allen B. Hannay, Judge.
Suit by Mrs. Alma Shavers against the Houston News Company and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal.
Reversed and rendered.
John F. Battaile, of Houston, for appellants.
Earle M. Manint and John T. Garrison, both of Houston, for appellee.
This suit was brought by Mrs. Alma Shavers against Houston News Company, Texas News Company, and Home Indemnity Company of New York. The Houston News Company and the Texas News Company appear to be the same concern, doing business under different names. The action against Houston News Company and Texas News Company was in tort to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff as the result of a collision which took place in the city of Galveston between a truck owned by Houston News Company and alleged to have been driven by its agent, and an automobile driven by Mrs. Anna R. Lake and in which the plaintiff was riding as a guest. The action against the Home Indemnity Company of New York was based upon a contract of indemnity insurance alleged to have been issued by said defendant for the benefit of the other two defendants and those injured by their automobiles.
A trial by jury resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff for the sum of $18,000. The defendants appealed.
The appellants contend that the trial court erred in refusing to give an instructed verdict in their behalf and in entering a judgment against them upon the verdict of the jury, because the evidence was insufficient to establish that the driver of the defendants' truck was acting within the scope of his employment as defendants' agent at the time of said collision. It is their contention that Earl Belanger, who was driving the truck which belonged to the Houston News Company at the time of the collision, was using said truck on an errand purely his own and that the finding of the jury that he was acting within the scope of his employment as a servant of the Houston News Company is wholly unsupported by the evidence.
The plaintiff called as a witness the defendants' truck driver, Earl Belanger, who testified on direct examination: "That he was in the employ of the defendant Houston News Company on the day of the accident; that his duties were to deliver magazines; that he delivered the magazines to drug stores and wholesale dealers at Houston, Galveston and Texas City; that the truck he used was the property of the Houston News Company; that the accident occurred on Saturday afternoon around 4 P. M."
On cross-examination said witness testified:
Mrs. Belanger, the wife of the truck driver, called by defendants, testified substantially to the same effect, corroborating the driver in his testimony as to the errand upon which they were at the time of the accident. She testified: ...
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