(Download) "Abraham Cherry and Albert Allison v. Victoria Equipment and Supply" by Supreme Court of Texas No. C-1573 # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Abraham Cherry and Albert Allison v. Victoria Equipment and Supply
- Author : Supreme Court of Texas No. C-1573
- Release Date : January 02, 1983
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 76 KB
Description
Ted Z. Robertson, Justice Petitioners, Abraham Cherry and Albert Allison, were injured when a gas holding tank on a well they were cleaning ignited. Their injuries occurred in October 1976 and suits were filed by each in July, 1977 and August, 1978, respectively. Neither Cherry nor Allison named Respondents, Victoria Equipment and Supply, Inc., et al, as defendants until March 1980. Cherry and Allison were unaware of Victoria Equipment's involvement with the well in question because a co-owner of Victoria Equipment testified by deposition that his company had nothing to do with the well. The trial court granted summary judgment for Victoria Equipment based upon the two-year statute of limitations. TEX. REV. CIV. STAT. ANN. art. 5526 (Vernon Supp. 1983). Cherry and Allison argued that the doctrine of fraudulent concealment of a cause of action suspended the running of limitations. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court. 640 S.W.2d 685. We reverse the courts below and remand the cause because Cherry and Allison raised a fact issue as to fraudulent concealment, therefore summary judgment was improper. Melvin Klotzman is a 50 per cent owner of Victoria Equipment. After the fire occurred, and before the statute of limitations expired, Klotzman's deposition was taken by Cherry's attorney concerning the circumstances of the explosion at the well. Klotzman testified repeatedly that Victoria Equipment had not been hired to do any work on the well, and were not working on the well at all. It was not until the deposition of an employee of Victoria Equipment was taken in March 1980 that Cherry and Allison discovered that Victoria Equipment did in fact do work on the well in question. Victoria Equipment was joined as a defendant at that time.