Brownsville & Matamoros Bridge Co. v. Null

• Decision Date: 19 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 1321,1321
• Citation: 578 S.W.2d 774
• Parties: BROWNSVILLE & MATAMOROS BRIDGE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Donald Keith NULL et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 774

578 S.W.2d 774

BROWNSVILLE & MATAMOROS BRIDGE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Donald Keith NULL et al., Appellees.

No. 1321.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Corpus Christi.

Oct. 19, 1978.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 25, 1979 Overruled and Granted with Opinion.

Amigoland Feb. 22, 1979 Overruled.

Null March 1, 1979 Overruled.

Robert B. Benton, O'Leary, Sanchez & Benton, Brownsville, Harry F. Maddin, Maddin, White & Brin, Inc., Corpus Christi, for appellant.

John E. Lewis, McAllen, Gordon L. Briscoe, John W. Black, III, Stephen E. Ulrich, Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, Brownsville, for appellees.

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

This is a suit for personal injuries. Appellee, Donald Null, an employee of a subcontractor, brought suit against appellant, Brownsville & Matamoros Bridge Company, and appellees, Amigoland, Inc., and Ballenger Construction Company, to recover damages for personal injuries he sustained when a wooden staircase attached to the exterior of a frame building owned by the Bridge Company collapsed as he descended the stairs. In response to special issues, the jury found that defendant Amigoland, Inc. committed acts of negligence which were a proximate cause of Null's injuries, but failed to find defendants Brownsville & Matamoros Bridge Company or Ballenger Construction Company guilty of negligence. The jury convicted plaintiff Null of contributory negligence. However, the trial court granted Null's and Amigoland's motions to disregard certain special issues and entered a judgment non obstante veredicto awarding recovery against Brownsville & Matamoros Bridge Company. The trial court denied the Bridge Company's claims for contribution and/or indemnity against Amigoland and the Construction Company. Brownsville & Matamoros Bridge Company appeals to this Court from the trial court's judgment.

The Bridge Company and the National Republic of Mexico jointly own the international bridge, which spans the Rio Grande River between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. The Bridge Company also owns approximately five acres of land and several buildings on the Texas side of the bridge. The Bridge Company is in the business of collecting tolls from vehicles and pedestrians who cross the bridge and in leasing office space to various governmental agencies which conduct custom and inspection operations for traffic moving across the United States and Mexican borders.

Amigoland, at the time of the accident, was developing a shopping center on a tract of land not far from the bridge. The development plans contemplated extending a shopping mall access road to join with the existing road leading to the bridge. This construction required the relocation of certain buildings owned by the Bridge Company. Amigoland's general contractor was Ballenger Construction Company, which was in charge of the paving improvements. In order to effectuate these plans, Amigoland sought the Bridge Company's approval to alter the existing road crossing the Bridge Company's land and to relocate some of the Bridge Company's buildings. The Construction Company and Amigoland had a series of meetings with the Bridge Company and its tenants to discuss the general proposal. The Bridge Company's tenants (the various governmental agencies) did not object to the proposed relocation of the buildings provided Amigoland did not interrupt the operation of their facilities. In accordance with these discussions, the Bridge Company drafted a letter agreement which was signed and accepted by Amigoland. This letter agreement, in essence, granted Amigoland permission to relocate the buildings provided that Amigoland would furnish temporary office space and pay all of the direct and indirect moving expenses. Thereafter, Amigoland hired M. Castillo and Sons, a moving company, to move the buildings.

The building upon which plaintiff Null sustained his injuries during the relocation process was known as the "Customs building" or the "primary inspection building." This wooden frame building was primarily a one-story rectangular structure with an open porch which was supported by beams. One end of the building was two stories high. There was an outside entrance to the second story office which was accessible by an outside wooden stairway. Three governmental agencies, including the U. S. Customs and Immigration, occupied offices on the first story of the building and officials of the Bridge Company occupied the second floor office. Floodlights, which were used to illuminate nighttime custom inspections, were located on the corner of the second story of this building.

During the relocation process, the occupants of the primary inspection station moved across the street to a temporary mobile home provided by Amigoland. Although it was agreed that the building was not to be used during the relocation process, it was contemplated that the existing floodlights would be necessary to illuminate the nighttime inspections. It was, therefore, necessary to hire an electrician to disconnect all of the electrical lines prior to moving the building and to reconnect the electrical lines to the floodlights on the second floor for each night's operation. Amigoland asked the Construction Company to obtain bids from electrical contractors to do the necessary electrical work. The Construction Company thereafter hired Null's employer, Star Electric, for the job.

Plaintiff Null was in charge of the electrical work for Star Electric. His general instructions from his employer, Star Electric, were to disconnect all the electrical connections from the building and to provide temporary electrical service as needed. Because it would take the moving company several days to move the building, Null disconnected the temporary electrical lines in the morning and then reconnected the lines after the moving company had stopped work in the afternoon. The floodlights on the second story of the Customs building could be illuminated from the ground by connecting a temporary electrical loop. The direction of the floodlights had to be re-adjusted from a vantage point on the first story roof of the building as the position of the building changed periodically during the course of the move.

In order to move the building, the moving company first jacked the building up off the ground and placed it on rails. As a result of the building being placed on the rails, the outside stairway was raised completely off the ground so that the lower steps were no longer touching the ground. The 4 X 4 wood braces which supported the stairway were removed. The moving company attempted to brace the stairs by placing a small chain around the middle of the stairway and nailing the chain to the side of the building.

Plaintiff Null was injured on June 30, 1970, five days after he first commenced his electrical work on the building. During this time span, Null had used the stairway on several occasions to reach the roof. The testimony showed that he had used the stairway before the building had been lifted from the ground, after the building had been placed on rails but before it had been moved, and after the actual move of the building commenced. On the day of the accident, Null and his helper, Larry Vano, had climbed the stairway of the building to reach the roof and had adjusted the spot lights. After they had completed the necessary adjustments and were descending the stairs, the stairs fell. Vano had almost reached the ground and Null had descended one or two stairs from the platform at the top of the stairway when the stairway gave away. Null was seriously injured.

Null filed suit against the Bridge Company, Amigoland and the Construction Company alleging that each defendant possessed and shared control of the stairway which constituted a hazardous condition, and that each defendant had supplied the stairway for Null's use in adjusting the outside floodlights. Null alleged that each defendant was guilty of negligence which proximately caused his injuries by: 1) failing to inspect the stairway; 2) failing to warn Null that the stairway was not safe to use; and 3) failing to make the stairway safe for Null's use. The three named defendants filed cross-actions against each other seeking indemnity and/or contribution. In addition, each defendant filed a third party action against M. Castillo & Sons, the moving company, for indemnity and/or contribution.

During the trial, Null entered into a settlement agreement with Amigoland, Ballenger and Castillo & Sons. The exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed to the court or to the jury. At the close of plaintiff Null's evidence, Null took a nonsuit as to each defendant except the Bridge Company. The trial court denied the Bridge Company's motion for directed verdict. Thereafter, the case went to the jury on the issues of the Bridge Company's negligence, Null's contributory negligence and the Bridge Company's cross-claims and third party action for indemnity and/or contribution against the other defendants.

The jury, in response to special issues: 1) found that upon the occasion in question, the Bridge Company's building with its outside stairway was not reasonably safe for use by Null in the performance of his work; 2) found that such unsafe condition was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained by Null; 3) failed to find that the Bridge Company knew that the stairway was not reasonably safe for use by Null; 4) found that such unsafe condition could have been discovered by the Bridge Company by means of reasonable inspection; 5) found that the Bridge Company failed to inspect the stairway to determine whether the same was reasonably safe for use by Null; 6) did not find that such failure was negligence; 7) found that such failure was a proximate cause of the occurrence in question; 8) found that the Bridge Company failed to make the stairway in question reasonably safe for use by Null; 9) did not find that such failure was negligence; 10) found that...