LEE LEWIS CONSTRUCTION, INC., PETITIONER v. NORMA HARRISON, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS NEXT FRIEND OF SUMER DAWN HARRISON AND JIMMIE THOR HARRISON, MINORS, AND SELLIE E. HARRISON AND MAY HARRISON, RESPONDENTS, 70 S.W.3d 778

Summary

The contractor challenged the legal sufficiency of the jury's negligence and gross negligence findings, and in the alternative, the propriety of the submitted jury question concerning whether the contractor owed a duty to the decedent. Evidence at trial supported the family's contention that the contractor observed and expressly approved of decedent's employer using faulty fall-protection equipment. The evidence constituted more than a scintilla of evidence that the contractor retained the right to control fall-protection systems on the jobsite. The contractor's failure to require its subcontractors' employees to use independent lifelines was a cause-in-fact of the decedent's death, and that the contractor knew or should have known that workers using an ineffective fall-protection system could suffer a fatal fall. Testimony demonstrated that the contractor foresaw the general character of injury that the decedent sustained. Evidence also showed that the contractor's workers used ...