Trevino v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 17 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. 1391,1391
• Parties: Raul TREVINO, Appellant, v. SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 582

582 S.W.2d 582

Raul TREVINO, Appellant, v. SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 1391.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Corpus Christi.

May 17, 1979.

Richard Arroyo, Brownsville, Warren N. Weir, Charles Herring, Jr., Gochman & Weir, San Antonio, for appellant.

Marshall W. Graham, Harlingen, Donna Lynn Snyder, San Antonio, for appellee.

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff Raul Trevino brought suit against Southwestern Bell Telephone Company alleging that the defendant broke and entered into his place of business, removed two business telephones without permission, and as a result, invaded the privacy of his business establishment to his damage. The case was tried before a jury. At the close of the evidence, the trial court withdrew the case from the jury and rendered judgment for the defendant telephone company. Plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff alleged that he had experienced continuous disruptions of his telephone service because of malfunctioning equipment, requiring him to make continuous complaints about his phone service, all of which went unheeded. Finally, the plaintiff called defendant's headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, complaining of the poor service he was receiving in Brownsville. The plaintiff contended that because of these complaints, the defendant telephone company decided to retaliate by removing plaintiff's telephone instruments. Plaintiff alleged that the defendant telephone company trespassed upon his business premises, breaking down a door located at the rear of his office and thereafter removing his telephone instruments without his consent or authorization. He sought recovery for the following damages: loss of business in the amount of $15,000.00; $30.00 for repair to his door; $50.00 for inconvenience in being denied his telephone until it was replaced; mental anguish in the amount of $10,000.00; $10,000.00 for invasion of his right to privacy; punitive damages in the amount of $100,000.00; and nominal damages of $500.00. At the conclusion of the trial, the court ruled that there was no evidence that would warrant the submission of any of the damage issues to the jury. The plaintiff on appeal does not take issue with the trial court's rulings regarding the lack of evidence on the various damage issues except for two: 1) mental anguish and/or 2) nominal damages.

The plaintiff's first point of error concerns the trial court's ruling that there wasn't any evidence that would support an issue on mental anguish. On appeal, we are required to view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom an instructed verdict is entered, indulging every inference that can properly be drawn from the evidence against the trial court's action. Echols v. Wells, 510 S.W.2d 916 (Tex.Sup.1974); T-L Drilling Company v. Northern Propane Gas Co., 516 S.W.2d 710 (Tex.Civ.App. Corpus Christi 1974, no writ); K & S Oil Well Service, Inc. v. Cabot Corporation, Inc., 491 S.W.2d 733 (Tex.Civ.App. Corpus Christi 1973, writ ref'd n. r. e.).

The evidence shows that Gilbert Rodriguez, an employee of the defendant telephone company, who installs and disconnects telephones, went to the plaintiff's premises. When no one answered his knock at the door, Rodriguez went to the office of the Gold Cross Ambulance Service and asked Mr. Cavazos if he knew of anyone who had a key to plaintiff's office. The evidence is conflicting as to what took place next. The plaintiff contends that Rodriguez broke down the door and took the telephones. The evidence, as we must view it, shows that the defendant's employee entered plaintiff's place of business without his permission and removed the telephones. When plaintiff discovered that his telephones had been removed, he went next door to the Gold Cross Ambulance Service and talked with Mr. Cavazos concerning the removal of his phones. Cavazos testified: "He (the plaintiff) came to me and was very upset, and he said someone had stolen his phones . . . and I told him I am sorry Southwestern Bell has come and pulled your phones. And he got upset." The evidence showed on cross-examination that the plaintiff was mad and upset. "He was very upset that his office had been broken into."

The invasion of privacy is a willful tort which constitutes a legal injury. Damages for mental suffering are recoverable without the necessity of showing actual physical injury in a case of a willful invasion of the right of privacy. This is so because the injury is essentially mental and subjective; no actual harm is done to the plaintiff's body. Billings v. Atkinson, 489 S.W.2d 858 (Tex.Sup.1973). The term "mental anguish" implies a relatively high degree of mental pain and distress. It is more than mere disappointment, anger, resentment, or embarrassment, although it may include all of these. It includes a mental sensation of pain resulting from such painful emotions as grief, severe disappointment, indignation, wounded pride, shame,...