Pool v. Ford Motor Co.

Decision Date02 April 1986
Docket NumberNo. C-4097,C-4097
Citation29 Tex.Sup.Ct.J. 30,715 S.W.2d 629
PartiesRonnie POOL et ux., Petitioners, v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Respondent.
CourtTexas Supreme Court

Rex Houston, Wellborn, Houston, Adkinson, Mann & Sadler, Henderson, for petitioners.

Richard Grainger, Grainger, Patterson, Howard & Colley, Tyler, for respondent.

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

KILGARLIN, Justice.

Our opinion of February 12, 1986 is withdrawn and the following is substituted.

This is a products liability action arising out of an alleged defect that caused Ronnie Pool's Ford pick-up truck to go out of control. Pool sustained serious head injuries when his truck ran off the road and collided with a tree. Pool and his wife brought this suit against Ford Motor Company alleging design and/or manufacturing defects which caused the right rear suspension system U-bolt to fall off, which, in turn, caused the accident.

The jury found that the U-bolt assembly system was defective when it left the possession of Ford Motor Company and that such defect was a producing cause of the accident. The jury failed to find that Pool was negligent in driving his pick-up while intoxicated, driving at an excessive rate of speed, in permitting his pick-up to veer off the road, or in failing to wear his seat belt. The trial court rendered judgment for Pool based on these findings and those of the jury relating to damages. The trial court subsequently ordered a remittitur of Mrs. Pool's damages for loss of future consortium and a small amount of Pool's medical expenses.

The court of appeals reversed the judgment and remanded the cause for a new trial. 688 S.W.2d 879. It held that there was error in excluding Ford's evidence concerning Pool's relationship with his former wife and marital problems with his present wife. The court also held that the jury's failure to find no contributory negligence was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. We affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the court of appeals and remand this cause to that court.

The Pools initially complain of the court of appeals' holding that the jury's failure to find that Ronnie Pool was contributorily negligent was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. We hold that the court of appeals committed errors of law in their review.

The court of appeals held that:

Because statutes prohibiting driving while intoxicated and speeding are safety statutes setting minimum standards of care, the jury was not permitted to decide that either of those acts did not constitute negligence. Thus, the jury's finding that Pool was not negligent can be sustained only if there is sufficient evidence that Pool was not, in fact, intoxicated and was not, in fact, speeding at the time his vehicle left the road.

688 S.W.2d at 883. Thus, the court of appeals apparently confused negligence per se with common law negligence. The court of appeals noted that the statute in effect at that time provided for a presumption of intoxication if a person's blood alcohol level was greater than 0.10 and then noted that evidence showed Pool had a blood alcohol level of 0.119. Id. The court of appeals went on to find "insufficient evidence to overcome the presumption of intoxication raised by the blood test." Id. (emphasis added).

Similarly, the court of appeals held that another statute made Pool's speed prima facie unreasonable. See Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6701d, § 166 (Vernon 1977). The court stated "[w]ithout evidence of probative value rebutting excessive speed and without any evidence of emergency, incapacity, or impossibility, the statutory violation was established as a matter of law and the jury's answer must be disregarded." 688 S.W.2d at 883.

In both instances, the court of appeals misapplied the applicable statutes. The DWI statute in effect at the time of this accident did not provide for a presumption of intoxication in civil actions. Act of June 4, 1969, ch. 434, §§ 1-3, 1969 Tex.Gen. Laws 1468-70, amended by Act of June 16, 1983, ch. 303, § 4, 1983 Tex.Gen. Laws 1568, 1577-85. In fact, the 1971 amendment to the statute specifically provided that the presumption of intoxication would not apply in civil actions. Act of June 7, 1971, ch. 709, § 3, 1971 Tex.Gen. Laws 2340, 2342. Thus, the court of appeals clearly erred in giving presumptive weight to Pool's blood alcohol test.

The court of appeals also apparently overlooked the statute which provides that "the provision of this act declaring maximum or minimum speed limitations shall not be construed to relieve the plaintiff in any action from the burden of proving negligence on the part of the defendant as the proximate cause of an accident." Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6701d, § 171(b) (Vernon 1977). Thus, a finding of speed in violation of the statutory limit is incomplete in a tort action when it does not include a finding of negligence. Davis v. Gatlin, 462 S.W.2d 54, 57 (Tex.Civ.App.--Beaumont 1970, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

As the Pattern Jury Charges note, in a civil action the key issue is the reasonableness of the speed given the circumstances, not the violation of the statutory limit. See 1 State Bar of Texas, Texas Pattern Jury Charges P.J.C. 5.02 (1970). In fact, the drafter's comment to this section explicitly states that "this submits the common law duty of the driver of a vehicle not to drive at an excessive rate of speed ... No issue submitting the violation of a specific speed limit is submitted because of the provision of § 171(b) of art. 6701d ..." Id.

That the court of appeals did not consider the evidence concerning the question of Pool's negligence in exceeding the posted speed limit is made clear by the evidence in the record regarding Pool's speed. The only evidence as to the reasonableness of the speed comes from the police officer who investigated the accident and the plaintiffs' accident reconstruction expert witness. The police officer testified as follows:

"Q. Is that a reasonable speed at any place?

A. No it's not."

The officer had previously testified that he estimated Pool's speed to be 70 m.p.h. Contrary to the officer's testimony, the plaintiff's expert testified that he believed that Pool was traveling at 60 m.p.h. The following exchange then took place:

"Q. Is 60 an unreasonable rate of speed to be driving on an open highway?

A. Not in Texas."

Thus, we hold that the court of appeals erred in treating the statutory violation of the speed limit as negligence per se. Further, the court erroneously gave presumptive weight to a violation of the DWI statute.

After having found that the court of appeals applied incorrect standards in evaluating the contributory negligence allegations of speed and intoxication, we ordinarily would remand this cause to that court so that it might view factual insufficiency consistent with our instructions as to the correct standard of law. However, that would not be true if a party's insufficiency point was in reality a no evidence point, for we would have jurisdiction to decide that. In the court of appeals, Ford Motor Company made only one assignment of error in respect to the jury's refusal to find Pool negligent for either speeding or intoxication. That point of error, number 11, read as follows:

The trial court erred in entering judgment for the plaintiffs, because the jury's finding, in answer to Special Issue No. 6, that Ronnie Pool was not at all negligent in speeding, having a medically tested blood-alcohol level of .119, and failing to wear his seatbelt while driving under those conditions after midnight is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust.

This type of point of error has been previously held not to preserve factual insufficiency for review by the court of appeals. In Chemical Cleaning, Inc. v. Chemical Cleaning and Equipment Service, Inc., 462 S.W.2d 276, 277 (Tex.1970), the supreme court said "[h]ence, a point of error which states that the trial court erred in rendering judgment on a verdict because of the state of the evidence--if it is adequate for any purpose--is only a 'no evidence' point." The point of error in this case is almost identical to the point raised in Chemical Cleaning.

Ford Motor Company and its amici contend that this court's holding in Chemical Cleaning was effectively overruled by the 1981 adoption of Tex.R.Civ.P. 418(d). Alternatively, they assert that if not already impliedly overruled, this court should now expressly overrule that decision.

Tex.R.Civ.P. 418(d), although since repealed, was "designed to reduce the technical requirements of briefs.... [and] while not abolishing points altogether, is consistent with a tendency to greater liberality in briefing rules and less formality in points of error." Comment, Tex.R.Civ.P. 418 (1984 Pamph.). The 1984 repeal of the rule did not imply an abandonment of the philosophy expressed in the comment. Indeed, the 1984 amendment to Tex.R.Civ.P. 469, by adding section (e), preserved the concept of permitting broader points of error. The simultaneous addition of Tex.R.Civ.P. 422, providing for liberally construing briefing rules, is further proof of this court's desire to relax past rigorous requirements as to the wording of points of error. Additional evidence of this court's changed attitude was stated in Holley v. Watts, 629 S.W.2d 694, 696 (Tex.1982). We said:

The points of error do not specify whether they are directed to complaints of 'insufficient evidence,' 'no evidence,' 'against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence,' or 'as a matter of law.' It is our practice to liberally construe the points of error in order to obtain a just, fair and equitable adjudication of the rights of the litigants. Calvert, 'No Evidence' and 'Insufficient Evidence' Points of Error, 38 Tex.L.Rev. 361 (1960). We look not only at the wording of the points of error, but to the argument under each point to determine as best we can...

To continue reading

Request your trial
1753 cases
  • Maritime Overseas Corp. v. Ellis
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Texas
    • 28 Julio 1994
    ...... Plas-Tex., Inc. v. United States Steel Corp., 772 S.W.2d 442, 445 (Tex.1989); Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629, 635 (Tex.1986). We may set aside the verdict only if the ......
  • Texas Farmers Ins. Co. v. Soriano
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Texas
    • 30 Noviembre 1992
    ...... We may not substitute our conclusions for that of the trier of fact, Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629, 635 (Tex.1986), nor may we pass on the credibility of the ......
  • Maritime Overseas Corp. v. Ellis
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Texas
    • 3 Julio 1998
    ...... See Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629, 634 (Tex.1986). .         If the court of appeals ......
  • S & A Restaurant Corp. v. Leal
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of Texas
    • 14 Marzo 1994
    ...... construed to raise the legal and factual sufficiency points and erroneously relies on Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629 (Tex.1986), as authority. .         In its point of ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT