Moore v. Texas Co.
| Decision Date | 27 December 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 5200,5200 |
| Citation | 299 S.W.2d 401 |
| Parties | D. E. MOORE, Appellant, v. The TEXAS COMPANY, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
John J. Watts, W. R. Barnes, Odessa, for appellant.
Turpin, Kerr & Smith, Midland, for appellee.
Appellant, D. E. Moore, filed action for damages for personal injuries against The Texas Company, appellee, which appellant alleged he received while working for J. P. (Bum) Gibbins, Inc., on a Texas Company lease in Andrews County, Texas. The Texas Employers Insurance Association, compensation insurer of J. P. (Bum) Gibbins, Inc., intervened, seeking to recoup the amount it paid in compensation to appellant. When appellant rested his case, appellee filed a motion for an instructed verdict, which was granted by the trial court. Appellant perfected his appeal. The intervenor did not perfect an appeal.
The facts of the case are undisputed. Appellant used two witnesses besides his doctor. They wre Ralph Hise, a Texas Company employee, and he, himself. Ralph Hise had been working for the Texas Company for some eight years as an engine mechanic. He worked on engines for appellee from Breckenridge to Water Valley. On the morning of the alleged injury, a Mr. McLaughlin, lease foreman for the Texas Company, sent word by Ralph Hise to tell Buck Jones, the pusher or foreman for J. C. (Bum) Gibbins, Inc., to change the oil seal on the pumping unit on the 'X' lease of appellee. The J. P. (Bum) Gibbins, Inc. was an independent contractor for various oil companies and it had had a crew working on the Texas Company lease for several weeks. Hise was working on the engine at the same location on which was located the pumping unit on which the oil seal was to be changed.
About 10 o'clock that morning Buck Jones brought two men D. E. Moore, appellant, and W. E. Murphy, in a truck to the location and left them with instruction as to what to do. Buck Jones did not return before the alleged injury occurred.
In the operation of changing the oil seal on the pumping unit, it was necessary to disconnect the pitman arm from the pin, or axle, attached to weights on the pumping unit. This had been done, and the oil seal changed without any difficulty. However, in going about reconnecting the pitman arm, it was found that the weights had shifted some and the pitman arm would not go all the way on. At some stage during the operation-it is not clear when-Ralph Hise quit his work on the engine, left it idling with the clutch disengaged, and went over and 'pitched in' to help the J. P. (Bum) Gibbins, Inc. men. Nobody asked him to help. He never had before, and was not supposed to. He did not know why, but just did on his own free well. He did not give any instructions, did not tell anybody what to do, but they were all just working together. He had never changed an oil seal on a pumping unit, but had seen a number of such changes made. Concerning the difficulty of getting the pitman arm properly reconnected, appellant testified that somebody had an idea that to get the pitman arm on, the brake on the pumping unit would have to be released a little, so the weights would shift up to down, and somebody-it may have been appellant, himself-told Hise to release the brake. As Hise went to release the brake, appellant and Murphy were pushing on the pitman arm to...
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