Supreme Court Update: U-Haul v. Waldrip

Amid a flurry of post-summer break opinions today, the Texas Supreme Court issued one decision in a case from the Dallas Court of Appeals.  In U-Haul International, Inc. v. Waldrip, the court of appeals had reversed and rendered an $11.7 million award of exemplary damages, but left intact $21 million in compensatory damages.  The case arose out of an accident in which a truck with a damaged transmission and an inoperable parking brake rolled over the plaintiff as he was exiting the vehicle.  In its decision today, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s judgment even further, rendering judgment for the defendants on the plaintiff’s claims for gross negligence and remanding the negligence claims for a new trial.  The key error cited by the Supreme Court was the trial court’s admission of evidence concerning U-Haul’s safety practices in Canada, little of which had to do with faulty parking brakes or transmissions.  The Supreme Court held that the erroneous admission of that evidence probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment because, among other reasons, plaintiff’s counsel had advocated for its inclusion over the defendants’ objections.  Thus, the case was remanded to the trial court for a new trial on negligence. Justice Lehrmann dissented.

U-Haul International, Inc. v. Waldrip, No. 10-0781