## Facts

- George E. Debes died of carbon monoxide poisoning while staying as a guest in a Texas motel owned and operated by Chester George and his wife.
- When fire personnel arrived, a chair near the room heater had burned and was smoldering.
- Debes’s parents sued for wrongful death under Texas law, alleging the room’s gas heater was defective due to improper installation, improper venting, and lack of inspection or cleaning.
- The motel owners denied negligence and argued the carbon monoxide came from smoldering furniture and clothing, not from the heater.
- Over objection, the trial court allowed the owners to testify that many guests had previously occupied the same room and made no complaints about the heater.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Texas law, an innkeeper owes a guest ordinary care or a higher degree of care.
2. Whether testimony that prior guests occupied the room and made no complaints about the heater was inadmissible hearsay or irrelevant.
3. Whether submitting an “unavoidable accident” interrogatory to the jury was reversible error.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment for the defendants.
- The trial court correctly instructed that a Texas innkeeper owes guests ordinary (reasonable) care, not a heightened duty.
- The prior-guest “no complaints” testimony was properly admitted as relevant evidence bearing on whether the heater was the carbon monoxide source and was not barred as hearsay.
- Submission of the unavoidable-accident interrogatory did not warrant reversal in light of the jury’s findings.

## Legal Principles

- In Texas, an innkeeper’s duty to guests is limited to ordinary or reasonable care.
- Evidence of an instrumentality’s prior operation and experience (including absence of complaints within a witness’s knowledge) may be admissible as circumstantial proof of condition or causation and is not necessarily hearsay when not offered as out-of-court assertions for their truth.
- An unavoidable-accident submission is not reversible error where the verdict and other findings support judgment and the submission does not prejudice the complaining party.

## Conclusion

The appellate court left intact a defense verdict in a motel carbon monoxide death case, holding that Texas imposes only ordinary care on innkeepers, that testimony about prior guests’ uneventful use of the room was admissible circumstantial evidence, and that the unavoidable-accident interrogatory did not justify a new trial.


Cain v. George, 411 F.2d 572 (5th Cir. 1969)