Stodghill v. Texas Emp. Ins. Ass'n

• Decision Date: 23 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. B-7987,B-7987
• Citation: 582 S.W.2d 102
• Parties: Mary E. STODGHILL et al., Petitioners, v. TEXAS EMPLOYERS INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 102

582 S.W.2d 102

Mary E. STODGHILL et al., Petitioners, v. TEXAS EMPLOYERS INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, Respondent.

No. B-7987.

Supreme Court of Texas.

May 23, 1979.

Norma Venso, Odessa, for petitioners.

Shafer, Gilliland, Davis, Bunton and McCollum, Connell Ashley and Tryon D. Lewis, Odessa, for respondents.

SPEARS, Justice.

Petitioner Mary Stodghill and her three children were awarded a judgment against Texas Employers Insurance Association (TEIA) for death benefits under the Worker's Compensation Act pursuant to a favorable jury verdict. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court and rendered judgment that there was no evidence to support the jury's answer that an accidental fall injuring Thomas Stodghill was a producing cause of his death from a myocardial infarction forty-seven days later. 570 S.W.2d 398. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals and remand the case for a new trial.

In determining whether there is "no evidence" to support the finding of the jury as to the existence of producing cause, we must consider only the evidence and inferences which tend to support the finding of the jury and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821 (Tex.1965); In re King's Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951). Even though evidence was presented at the trial that no causal connection existed between Stodghill's injury and his death, that evidence may not be considered in passing on the "no evidence" point. We thus review that evidence that is favorable to the finding of the jury.

On April 26, 1974, Thomas Stodghill was injured when he fell fifteen feet to the ground from a drilling rig on which he was working. He sustained a fractured right arm at the wrist, an acute lumbosacral strain, and a bruise and contusion of the right hip and the right elbow. Stodghill, 49 years old, was admitted to the hospital by Dr. Edwin E. Franks. His temperature was normal, pulse was 90, respiration was 20, and his blood pressure was 188/92. Dr. Franks noted on the hospital summary sheet that Stodghill had "essential hypertension" and defined the term as a history of high blood pressure. Stodghill was in the hospital for five days, and on the last day, Dr. Franks started Stodghill on blood pressure medication. On his release from the hospital, his blood pressure was 140/92. In the weeks following his release, Stodghill recorded readings of 140/80, 160/100, and 150/90, the upper limits of normal for him being 140/90. On May 7th, the blood pressure medicine was increased from one to two capsules a day. Stodghill never returned to work after his injury. On June 12th, he died at home of a myocardial infarction.

Petitioner Mary Stodghill, the widow, testified that during the time between her husband's injury and his death, he was in pain, he couldn't eat well, he would "bloat up" in his stomach, face and neck, and that "he complained of a lot of indigestion."

On cross-examination, Dr. Franks admitted that in the case of a patient with hypertension, "stress can aggravate or accelerate or excite that condition of hypertension," and that the accident that Stodghill had on April 24th "was obviously a great stress on him." Dr. Franks further conceded that if a person has hypertension, that stress "can" kill him, and that stress "can" aggravate existing hypertension "to the point of causing heart failure."

Dr. Diego Pasos was called to testify by the plaintiffs. Educated in Cuba, he interned at the University of Puerto Rico, and had one year of residence in general surgery after coming to West Texas. After practicing 18 months in Crane, Texas, he moved to Odessa, where he had been in practice for 7 months at the time of trial.

Dr. Pasos never examined the deceased Stodghill, but based his testimony on his study of Stodghill's hospital records and a review of some medical books. He had some difficulty with the English language during his testimony, but despite that, seemed from the record to have understood and to have been understood. After summarizing the background and facts concerning the accident and the injuries sustained, Stodghill's attorney asked Dr. Pasos if "there was any doubt in your mind but that this man received a very serious injury?". His answer was "A. These injuries seem like they are going to be very serious, but the fact that this man, of the records showed that he had been Suffering from essential hypertension, body injury could aggravate the progress, and trigger final complication to the hypertension." (Emphasis supplied.)

Further questions and answers of Dr. Pasos included:

"Q. Now, I want to talk to you about that. I am going to ask you to assume with me, doctor, certain things to be true. Assume that after the period in the hospital that you have read about, as shown in Plaintiff's Exhibit 2; assumed that he was at home, and that from time to time he would complain of indigestion, that he would, from time to time, swell or get puffed or bloated as his family had not seen him do before; that he was worried about going back to work, being able to go back to work, and finally on the 12th of June, he complained of indigestion and shortly thereafter had to be taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, and then assume that Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 1, shows what happened at the hospital

"A. Uh huh.

"Q. Now assume all of those things to be true. Assume that is what happened to him. Now, if that was the course of his treatment, and if he had the hypertension and had the kind of injury that he received on April 26, is there any question in your mind but what the injury triggered or aggravated the hypertension?

"Q. Do you have any doubt but what the injury triggered or aggravated the hypertension?

"A. Yes, it did. . . . A patient with essential hypertension have been shown in all of these books, and all of those medical magazines that have been brought to the late scene of all of the hypertension, myocardial infarction and trauma and everything, they come together and they have...