Rentech Steel, L.L.C. v. Teel, 11-07-00318-CV.

• Decision Date: 13 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 11-07-00318-CV.,11-07-00318-CV.
• Citation: 299 S.W.3d 155
• Parties: RENTECH STEEL, L.L.C., Appellant, v. Preston TEEL, Lesa Crosswhite, and Jennings Teel, Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

299 S.W.3d 155

RENTECH STEEL, L.L.C., Appellant, v. Preston TEEL, Lesa Crosswhite, and Jennings Teel, Appellees.

No. 11-07-00318-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Eastland.

August 13, 2009.

Thomas C. Wright, R. Russell Hollenbeck, Chad M. Forbes, Shelley White,

Wright, Brown & Close, L.L.P., Houston, for appellant.

Russell S. Post, W. Curt Webb, Erin H. Huber, Beck, Redden & Secrest, L.L.P., Houston, Steven L. Clack, Kerrville, for appellees.

Panel consists of: WRIGHT, C.J., McCALL, J., and STRANGE, J.

OPINION

JIM R. WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

Preston Teel and his parents, Lesa Crosswhite and Jennings Teel, sued Rentech Steel, L.L.C.¹ after Preston sustained serious bilateral hand injuries while cleaning a power roller machine that draws in steel plates and rolls them into a cylindrical shape. Preston was sixteen years old at the time of the accident and had recently begun a summer job at Rentech, a steel fabrication plant. The plaintiffs alleged negligence and gross negligence. At trial, Rentech admitted making mistakes and accepted responsibility for the accident. The jury found that Rentech was negligent, but not grossly negligent, and awarded actual damages of $11,850,000 to Preston and $620,000 to Preston's parents. After reducing Preston's award by the $1,900,000 settlement credit and adding prejudgment interest to the awards, the trial court rendered judgment on the jury's verdict against Rentech for a total of $11,339,221. Rentech appeals, challenging the jury's findings regarding damages and Rentech's sole responsibility for the accident. We affirm in part and modify in part, conditioned on remittitur.

Issues on Appeal

In Issue I, Rentech challenges the jury's failure to find that Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership Ltd. were liable for either negligence or products liability. In Issue II, Rentech challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence in support of the awards for past and future medical expenses and also argues that the trial court erred in disregarding Rentech's legal entitlement to a credit for its payment of past medical expenses. In Issue III, Rentech asserts that the damages awarded by the jury were excessive under the existing standards. Under this issue, Rentech also urges this court to adopt and apply a new, more objective standard to determine whether damages are excessive.

Standards of Review

To address Rentech's legal and factual sufficiency challenges, we will apply the following standards of review. When a challenge is made to the legal sufficiency, we must determine whether the evidence at trial would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to reach the verdict under review. City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 827 (Tex.2005). We must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the challenged finding, crediting any favorable evidence if a reasonable factfinder could and disregarding any contrary evidence unless a reasonable factfinder could not. Id. at 821-22, 827. We may sustain a no-evidence or legal sufficiency challenge only when (1) the record discloses a complete absence of a vital fact, (2) the court is barred by rules of law or evidence from giving weight to the only evidence offered to prove a vital fact, (3) the only evidence offered to prove a vital fact is no more than a mere scintilla, or (4) the evidence conclusively establishes the opposite of a vital fact. Id. at 810 (citing Robert W. Calvert, "No Evidence" and "Insufficient Evidence" Points of Error, 38 TEX. L. REV. 361, 362-63 (1960)). When a party attacks the legal sufficiency of an adverse finding on an issue on which that party had the burden of proof, the party must demonstrate on appeal that the evidence conclusively establishes, as a matter of law, all vital facts in support of the issue. Dow Chem. Co. v. Francis, 46 S.W.3d 237, 241 (Tex.2001).

To analyze a factual sufficiency challenge, we must consider and weigh all of the evidence and determine whether the evidence in support of a finding is so weak as to be clearly wrong and unjust or whether the finding is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust. Id. at 242; Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629, 635 (Tex.1986); In re King's Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660, 661 (1951).

In applying these standards, we are mindful that the jury is the sole judge of the witnesses' credibility and the weight to give to their testimony. City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 819. Jurors may choose to believe one witness and disbelieve another and may disregard even uncontradicted and unimpeached testimony from disinterested witnesses. Id. at 819-20. Furthermore, even uncontroverted expert testimony does not bind the jury unless the subject matter is one for experts alone — one for which jurors "cannot properly be assumed to have or be able to form correct opinions of their own based upon evidence as a whole and aided by their own experience and knowledge of the subject of inquiry." Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co. v. Martinez, 977 S.W.2d 328, 338 (Tex.1998) (quoting McGalliard v. Kuhlmann, 722 S.W.2d 694, 697 (Tex. 1986)); see also City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 820.

Liability of Others

Relying on the uncontroverted testimony of an expert witness, Rentech argues in Issue I that the negligence of Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership and the marketing and design defects of the power roller machine were conclusively established and, alternatively, that the jury's negative answers were contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Rentech contends that settling defendants Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership were also responsible for Preston's injuries. Bertsch/Mega manufactured the machine, and Rentz Family Partnership owned the machine but had leased it to Rentech. The jury was asked whether the negligence, if any, of Bertsch/ Mega, Rentz Family Partnership, or Rentech proximately caused the occurrence in question. The jury answered affirmatively as to Rentech only. The jury was also asked whether there was a marketing defect or a design defect in the power roller machine when it left Bertsch/Mega or Rentz Family Partnership that was a producing cause of the occurrence in question. The jury answered each question, "No." These answers indicate that the jury failed to find that Rentech carried its burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence. See C. & R. Transport, Inc. v. Campbell, 406 S.W.2d 191, 194 (Tex.1966).

In this case, the only evidence regarding the conduct of Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership came from William W.R. Purcell, an expert retained by the plaintiffs but called as a witness at trial by Rentech. Purcell had degrees in civil engineering and safety engineering and over forty years of experience in these fields, and he was a certified safety professional. Purcell conducted an investigation and determined that Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership did not comply with applicable safety standards because they failed to place adequate warnings in the danger zone on the sides of the machine and failed to provide adequate instructions and warnings for cleaning the machine. Purcell concluded that the machine was unreasonably dangerous because of marketing defects and inadequacies in the manuals and warnings. Purcell also implicated Rentech for various failures and violations of safety standards. Although Purcell did not testify about causation, he indicated in a single finding in a report that was admitted into evidence that the "unreasonably dangerous conditions and design defects, failures, and associated negligent acts of commission or omission, on the part of Bertsch and Rentech . . . were more than likely producing and proximate causes of the incident and related injuries." This conclusion was also made applicable to Mega and Rentz Family Partnership in a subsequent report.

In this case, causation was not a matter for experts alone and did not require a technical or scientific explanation; it was within the jury's ability to determine on its own what caused the accident and resulting injuries. See K-Mart Corp. v. Honeycutt, 24 S.W.3d 357, 361 (Tex.2000) (holding that it was within the jury's ability to determine on its own whether lack of a railing caused the accident). Because causation was not an issue for experts alone, the jury could have disregarded Purcell's conclusion as to causation. The jury was free to conclude based upon the evidence presented at trial that Rentech failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence (1) that the negligence of Bertsch/Mega or Rentz Family Partnership was a cause of the accident and (2) that a marketing or design defect was a cause of the accident. Other evidence before the jury included pictures of the actual roller machine and the warnings already located on the machine; testimony from a Rentech employee who operated the machine that a manual containing Bertsch's operating instructions had previously been supplied to Rentech; and testimony indicating that the Rentech employee operating the machine was knowingly violating the safety warnings and company policy at the time of the incident. Furthermore, evidence proving a safer alternative design was lacking. See Gen. Motors Corp. v. Sanchez, 997 S.W.2d 584, 588 (Tex.1999) (a safer alternative design must be proven in order to recover under a design defect theory).

We hold that the evidence is both legally and factually sufficient to support the verdict with respect to Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership. Rentech did not conclusively establish a causal nexus between the accident and Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership. Further, the jury's findings regarding Bertsch/Mega and Rentz Family Partnership were not so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust. Issue I is overruled.

Medical Expenses

In Issue II, Rentech challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of...