Opinion

Muro v. Houston Fire & Casualty Insurance Co.

  • 329 S.W.2d 326
  • 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2205
Court
Court of Appeals of Texas
Filed
Sep 30, 1959
Status
Published
On the bench
Pope, Murray
Cited by
49 cases
Authority
More cited than 10.4%

The opinion

On Motion for Rehearing.

In our original opinion, we stated that both medical experts testified they would not pass Muro for work as a common laborer. Only Dr. Haley so testified. Appellee renews its insistence that the trial court erred in permitting Muro to prove the necessitous circumstances which impelled him to seek employment. This is the same matter which we discussed in Muró v. Houston Fire & Casualty Ins. Co., Tex.Civ. App., 310 S.W.2d 420 . On cross-examination, appellee interrogated Muro, step by step, about every employment he had obtained since the injury. In detail he was questioned about the nature and duration of the work, seeking thereby to prove his ability to do hard work. To rebut this evidence, on re-direct, Muro testified that he went to work first with Mex-Mo, six months after the injury. He was sore, his feet, knees and back hurt him. He said, “I just had to work, and I went to work, pain and all.” He gave similar testimony about his other jobs. He testified that he was married, had six children, his wife was pregnant, and his credit exhausted. This proof was in answer to the work record which appellee relied upon to defeat the whole action. If it is a legitimate inference that a plaintiff is well because he works, it is a legitimate reply that he works, though sick, because he is in need. When defendant opens the door by proof that the plaintiff is well and able to work because he has worked, he will not be heard to complain of evidence that the plaintiff worked, not because he was well, but because of economic compulsion.

The motion is overruled.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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