{"id":37823,"date":"2016-03-31T19:26:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/uncategorized\/the-fourth-court-of-appeals-recently-affirmed-that-as-a-general.html"},"modified":"2016-06-02T10:32:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:32:07","slug":"the-fourth-court-of-appeals-recently-affirmed-that-as-a-general","status":"publish","type":"corporate","link":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/litigation-disputes\/the-fourth-court-of-appeals-recently-affirmed-that-as-a-general.html","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth Court Of Appeals Recently Affirmed That As A General Rule, A Person Is Under No Duty To Control The Conduct Of Another"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Edwards v. Silva<\/a><\/i>, Opinion No. 04-99-00471-CV, San Antonio Court of Appeals, decided September 29, 2000, the Plaintiffs were appealing a summary judgment granted in favor of the Defendants, Al Silva and Labatt Institutional Supply Company dba Labatt Food Service (Labatt). The following is a discussion of the case and its impact on similar actions.<\/p>\n

FACTS OF CASE<\/b><\/p>\n

On April 16, 1997, the Plaintiff, Robert Edwards, joined his supervisor, Al Silva, for drinks. During the course of the evening, the Plaintiff consumed approximately eight (8) beers. The alcohol and appetizers were purchased with a company credit card. After they were done drinking, Mr. Silva drove Mr. Edwards back to his vehicle on Labatt’s premises. Edwards was on his way home when he was involved in one car accident, sustaining serious personal injuries.<\/p>\n

The Plaintiffs, Edwards and his wife, then sued Silva and Labatt alleging that the Defendants were negligent in furnishing the Plaintiff alcohol; placing him in danger and failing to take reasonable precautions to ensure safety; failing to make alternative arrangements for him to get home; failing to implement reasonable practices involving use of alcoholic beverages and failing to supervise the Plaintiff. The Defendants moved for summary judgment<\/a> which was granted by the trial court.<\/p>\n

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  1. GENERALLY NO DUTY TO CONTROL THE CONDUCT OF ANOTHER
    \n <\/b>The Court of Appeals noted that the primary inquiry was whether there was a duty owed to the Plaintiff by the Defendant. The Court of Appeals reiterated the general rule that "a person is under no duty to control the conduct of another" Otis Eng’g v. Clark<\/i>, S.W.2d 307, 309 (Tex. 1983). The Court did recognize exceptions to the general rule where a special relationship exists between the actor and the third party.<\/li>\n
  2. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP NEEDED<\/b>
    \nThe Court noted that one of those special relationships is in the employer-employee relationship. Still, the Court noted that the duty attaches in the employer-employee relationship only when the employer performs some affirmative act of control over the incapacitated employee. In the instant case the Court of Appeals noted that the Otis Eng’g v. Clark<\/i> decision created a duty owed by an employer only to innocent third parties who are injured by the acts of an     intoxicated employee<\/a>. The Court of Appeals also noted that the common law has long recognized that the imbiber is the person primarily responsible for his own behavior, and best able to avoid the foreseeable risks of that behavior. Graff v. Beard<\/i>, 858 S.W.2d 918, 921-922 (Tex. 1993).<\/li>\n
  3. LACK OF EVIDENCE ALLOWS SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO STAND<\/b>
    \nAlthough the Plaintiffs alleged that the meeting between the Plaintiff and Silva was a business meeting, they were not able to produce evidence that the meeting was for a business purpose. In addition, they were unable to produce any competent summary judgment evidence that there was any control exercised over the Plaintiff by Silva. As a result, since there was no affirmative act of control taken by Silva after the Plaintiff’s intoxication, the Court ruled that Silva had no duty to keep the Plaintiff from harming himself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In Edwards v. Silva, Opinion No. 04-99-00471-CV, San Antonio Court of Appeals, decided September 29, 2000, the Plaintiffs were appealing a summary judgment granted in favor of the Defendants, Al Silva and Labatt Institutional Supply Company dba …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"corporate_categories":[6523,6522,6520],"class_list":["post-37823","corporate","type-corporate","status-publish","hentry","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes__civil-litigation__business-torts","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes__civil-litigation","corporate_categories-litigation-disputes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate\/37823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/corporate"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"corporate_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate_categories?post=37823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}