Carter v. Skelly Oil Co.
| Decision Date | 16 October 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 3543,3543 |
| Citation | 317 S.W.2d 227 |
| Parties | Mrs. Richard E. CARTER et al., Appellants, v. SKELLY OIL COMPANY, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Hill, Brown, Kronzer & Abraham, Houston, Bell, Camp & Gwin, Bay City, for appellants.
Vinson Elkins, Weems & Searls, Houston, Gayle M. Pickens, Tulsa, Okl., B. Jeff Crane, Jr., Houston, for appellee.
This is a companion case to No. 3542, Skelly Oil Co. v. Carter, Tex.Civ.App., 316 S.W.2d 87, in which cause liability of Skelly Oil Company for injuries sustained by Richard E. Carter, deceased, was upheld.
Richard E. Carter was an employee of Skelly Oil Company. On 15 August 1955, while working in the course and scope of his employment, he undertook to remove a unibolt coupling from a heater connected with gas production equipment on the Carrie Labay Lease in Colorado County. Because gas was confined under pressure in that portion of the heater, either a part of the unibolt or the gas was propelled against Carter's body, inflicting upon him injuries from which he died 26 days later. This suit was originally instituted by his widow in a dual capacity: 1) as community survivor of the estate of the deceased to recover damages for the conscious pain and suffering endured by deceased during the 26 days he lived following his injury, and 2) under the wrongful death act, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. Art. 4671, individually and as next friend of the minor children of deceased. Defendant Skelly Oil Company being a nonsubscriber under the Workmen's Compensation Act, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq., was stripped of its common law defenses. Trial was hed to a jury, which found defendant guilty of negligence and, further that such negligence was a proximate cause of the occurrence. The issues as to damages to the surviving widow and children were answered totally $65,000. In answer to the special issue inquiring as to damages for the deceased's physical pain and mental anguish before his death the jury replied 'None'. After verdict but prior to judgment Mrs. Richard E. Carter moved the Trial Court to sever the estate's cause of action from the separate cause of action asserted under Art. 4671. The Trial Court granted such motion and severed the two causes of action. Thereafter judgment was rendered in Cause 3542 for Mrs. Carter and children for $65,000, such constituted the subject matter of the appeal in Skelly Oil Company v. Carter, supra. The Trial Court, in this cause, rendered judgment that the estate take nothing for the pain and suffering endured by the deceased Richard E. Carter after his injury but prior to his death. Mrs. Carter, on behalf of the deceased's estate, appeals, contending: 1) There is no evidence to support the jury's answer to Issue No. 52; 2) the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's answer to Issue No. 52; 3) the jury's answer to Issue No. 52 is contrary to the overwhelming weight of all the evidence; 4) the jury's answer to Issue No. 52 is manifestly so inadequate, unsupportable, and inequitable...
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Pierce v. Reynolds
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