Lujan v. Houston General Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 06 July 1988
• Docket Number: No. C-7056,C-7056
• Citation: 756 S.W.2d 295
• Parties: Rita LUJAN, et al., Petitioner, v. HOUSTON GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 295

756 S.W.2d 295

Rita LUJAN, et al., Petitioner, v. HOUSTON GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent.

No. C-7056.

Supreme Court of Texas.

July 6, 1988.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 5, 1988.

Michol O'Connor, Houston, and Robert Trenchard, Jr., Wesch & Trenchard, Kermit, for petitioner.

Bruce Bangert, Shafer, Davis, McCollum, Ashley, O'Leary & Stocker, P.C., Odessa, for respondent.

OPINION

RAY, Justice.

The question in this workers' compensation case is whether the death of Abelardo Lujan occurred in the course of his employment. The trial court rendered judgment for Lujan's statutory heirs based on the jury's verdict. The court of appeals reversed and rendered judgment that the Lujan family take nothing. 740 S.W.2d 34. Because we hold that Lujan's death occurred in the course of his employment, we reverse the court of appeals' judgment and render judgment for the Lujan family.

Abelardo Lujan was a painter employed by Ezell Paint & Tank Company in Kermit, Texas. On July 11, 1985, Lujan, along with co-worker Randy Heath, was painting pipe, using a pressurized spray unit to apply paint mixed with thinner. About mid-afternoon, Heath noticed that the unit was leaking. Lujan tried to tighten the connection with a crescent wrench. The unit, which was under ninety pounds of pressure, blew the line off and soaked Lujan with industrial paint.

Lujan used gasoline to remove the paint. He soaked himself with gasoline and wiped off some of the paint and gasoline with paper towels and rags. Lujan decided to go home early to bathe since there were no facilities provided by his employer at the job site for such purposes. On the way back to the shop, Lujan remarked that his skin was burning. In order to reduce the burning, Lujan draped some clothing over himself as protection from the sun.

Lujan closed the shop and went home. Mrs. Lujan testified that when he arrived home, her husband was "full of paint," and that when he took his clothes off, he had paint all over his body. Lujan went into the bathroom to bathe, and the pilot light in the water heater ignited the fumes from his body and caused a flash fire.

When Mrs. Lujan opened the bathroom door, Lujan came out covered with fire. She helped him get the fire out with some clothing, and took him outside, yelling for help. Lujan was taken to the hospital, where he died two days later. The gasoline fumes had triggered the flash fire, but the paint and the thinner, which completely covered Lujan's body, caused the severity of his burns.

The jury's verdict consisted of its answer to one question: whether Lujan's work or the conditions of his employment result in an injury to him which was a producing cause of his death. The jury answered "yes," and the trial court rendered judgment for the Lujan family.

The Lujans complain that after discussing the applicable statute and arguments made by them, the court of appeals sustained all the insurance carrier's points of error in one sentence: "All points of error are sustained." The opinion did not mention any point of error, or reveal the reasoning for the holding. Before reaching the merits of the appeal, we must address the problems presented by such a holding.

Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 90(a) mandates that the "court of appeals shall hand down a written opinion which ... shall address every issue raised and necessary to final disposition of the appeal." Since the court of appeals in this case sustained all the insurance carrier's points to reverse and render, the points sustained were apparently "necessary to [a] final disposition of the appeal." We are not presented with a court merely overruling points not necessary to the outcome of the appeal. See, e.g., Davis v. Pletcher, 727 S.W.2d 29, 36 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1987, writ ref'd. n.r.e.). Instead, the court of appeals sustained points without discussion.

We agree with the Lujans that Rule 90 does not permit a court of appeals to sustain points which are dispositive of the case without revealing its reasoning. Such a practice not only goes against Rule 90, it undermines the very purpose behind issuing opinions. When a court of appeals does not address points which it has sustained, this court and the parties before it are left with nothing but speculation as to why the court of appeals ruled as it did.

The vice inherent in this blanket disposition is demonstrated by the primary issue of this appeal: whether Lujan's death was an injury sustained in the course of his employment. Because the court of appeals reversed and rendered judgment that the statutory beneficiaries take nothing, but did not favor us or the parties with its reasoning, we must assume that the court of appeals held, as a matter of law, that Lujan's injury was not sustained in the course of his employment. We conclude otherwise, and therefore reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

Under the Workers' Compensation Act, an injury is compensable if it is sustained in the course of employment. TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 8306, § 3b (Vernon 1967). The Act provides that the term "injury sustained in the course of employment"

(4) ... shall include all other injuries of every kind and character having to do with and originating in the work, business, trade or profession of the employer received by an employee while engaged in or about the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer whether upon the employer's premises or elsewhere. (emphasis supplied).

TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 8309, § 1 (Vernon 1967).

Often, the manifestation of an injury occurs later than the precipitating event. In his treatise on workers' compensation law, Larson uses the label "delayed-action" to describe cases in which the risk associated with employment causes an injury after work hours and off the premises of the employer. 1A A. LARSON, THE LAW OF WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION § 29.22 (1985); see also Larson,Range of Compensable Consequences in Workmen's Compensation, 21 Hastings L.J. 609 (1970). Texas courts have allowed recovery in delayed-action cases. For example, claimants have recovered under the Workers' Compensation Act when a fatal heart attack occurred at home, days or months after the strain or overexertion occurred at work. This is because the injury to the heart originated in the employment, but manifested itself at a later time. See Stodghill v. Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n, 582 S.W.2d 102 (Tex.1979); Texas Employers Insurance Ass'n v. Mitchusson, 515 S.W.2d 168 (Tex.Civ.App.--Eastland 1974, no writ); Hardware Mutual Casualty Co. v. Wesbrooks, 511 S.W.2d 406 (Tex.Civ.App.--Amarillo 1974, no writ); Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Calhoun, 426 S.W.2d 655 (Tex.Civ.App.--Beaumont 1968, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Lyles v. Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n, 365 S.W.2d 819 (Tex.Civ.App.--Texarkana 1963, writ ref'd n.r.e.). These heart attack cases highlight the importance of the "originating in" language of article 8309, section 1. It is the origin of an injury which is crucial, since the real question is whether the event was an industrial accident. The moment of manifestation is almost immaterial. See 1A A. LARSON, THE LAW OF WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION, § 29.22 (1985).

In Daniello v. Machise Express Co., 119 N.J.Super. 20, 289 A.2d 558 (Atlantic County Ct.1972), a New Jersey court was confronted with a delayed-action case, the facts of which are similar to those of the case at bar. Mr. Daniello was a truck driver. On the day of his injury, he delivered jet fuel, which splashed on him and permeated his body and uniform. When he arrived home at the end of the work day, his eight year old son was taking trash to the incinerator to be burned. Since he never allowed his son to burn trash, Daniello told his son that he would burn it. When he struck a match, the fire ignited the fumes from the jet fuel on his clothes and body. Based on a similar workers' compensation statute, the New Jersey court of appeals reversed a denial of benefits. The court held that although Daniello's injury...