thirty-four-month lapse marked by continuing psychological instability immediately and directly related to injury
How later courts described this case
- thirty-four-month lapse marked by continuing psychological instability immediately and directly related to injury
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
EVANS, Justice
(concurring).
I concur with the majority opinion and make this brief addendum to voice the view, expressed earlier by Justice Coulson, concurring in Texas Employer’s Insurance Association v. Saunders, 516 S.W.2d 242 , Tex.Civ.App.—Houston (14th) 1974, that the rule announced in Jones v. Traders & General Insurance Co., supra, should be considered in the light of today’s understanding of human behavior.
As distinguished from the factual situation in Jones, there is evidence in this case the Brecheen acted irrationally and “without conscious volition” in taking his own life. A tortious act may produce in a person a depressive state of mind to the degree that the person is unable to perceive with a sense of reality the value of his life to himself and to others. Thus, without rational basis for doing so, he may decide there is no benefit in the continuation of his life and act to destroy himself. In my opinion there was sufficient evidence in this case that Brecheen’s state of mind deprived him of his “capacity to govern his conduct in accordance with reason.” Restatement of Torts 2d, Section 455(b).