Delgadillo v. Tex-Con Utility Contractors, Inc.

AKIN, Justice.

Maria Delgadillo, Juana Macias and Maria Sosa, individually and as next friend for their minor children, sued Tex-Con Utility Contractors, Inc. to recover exemplary damages, as authorized by Tex.Const. art. XVI, § 26 and Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 8306, § 5 (Vernon 1967) for the deaths of plaintiffs’ husbands and parents. Plaintiffs had previously received death benefits under the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Act. The deceased employees were killed while working at the bottom of an eighteen-foot manhole in a trench when a large rock collapsed into the excavation. The jury found…