Opinion ID: 692023
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Receipt of the POA

Text: 14 During the pretrial telephone conference, the trial judge inquired about the circumstances surrounding the mailing of the POA. Phillips responded that it intended to call Terry Jeppsen, who would testify that as a regular course of Phillips' business, a Phillips' representative would have prepared and mailed the POA to Shur-Value immediately following Shur-Value's placing of the order. Telephone Conference, at 10. Shur-Value's counsel, on the other hand, responded that he did not know when the POA was dispatched because the POA was not in Shur-Value's file and nobody at Shur-Value could remember receiving the POA. Id. The trial judge in the telephone conference observed, And I am gathering from what the plaintiff is saying they don't have anyone who's going to deny it was sent but no one acknowledges having seen it and it's not in their file. Is that correct? Id. at 10-11. Plaintiff's attorney replied: That is correct, Your Honor. Id. at 11. The district court concluded that Phillips' proposed testimony established a presumption that Shur-Value had received a copy of the POA and that Shur-Value could not rebut this presumption. 15 As its second argument on appeal, Shur-Value contends that because it had presented sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that Phillips had ever mailed the POA, the issue of receipt of the letter properly belonged to the jury, and should not have been ruled upon as a matter of law by the district court. We disagree. 16 Under Texas law, 2 a letter properly addressed, stamped and mailed to the addressee is presumed to have been received by the addressee in due course. Cooper v. Hall, 489 S.W.2d 409, 415 (Tex.Civ.App.1972). These matters may be proved by circumstantial evidence, such as the customary mailing routine in connection with the sender's business. Id.; see also Hot Shot Messenger Service, Inc. v. State, 798 S.W.2d 413, 415 (Tex.Ct.App.1990). As the record indicates, Phillips was prepared to present evidence demonstrating that Phillips would, as a matter of course, mail out POA forms once it received a purchase order request. Accordingly, Phillips was entitled to the legal presumption that Shur-Value had received this particular POA form. Shur-Value does not seriously dispute this conclusion, 3 but rather contends that the district court erred in concluding that Shur-Value had failed to rebut the presumption of delivery and receipt. 17 To rebut the presumption of delivery and receipt and thus present a fact issue for the jury, the non-moving party must present testimonial evidence from an interested witness, denying that the letter was ever received. Sudduth v. Commonwealth County Mut. Ins. Co., 454 S.W.2d 196, 197 (Tex.1970) (plaintiff filed affidavit stating that she did not receive notice of cancellation). The Texas courts have characterized as substantial the amount of evidence necessary to overcome the presumption, and based on a review of those decisions where the presumption was successfully overcome, we hold that the evidence presented here by Shur-Value is not substantial enough. See Employers' Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Willits, 436 S.W.2d 918, 921 (Tex.Ct.App.1968); Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Greenwade, 159 S.W.2d 854, 858 (Tex.Comm'n App.1942) (internal quotation and emphasis omitted). 18 First, Shur-Value does not explicitly deny receiving the POA. Under the strict letter of Texas law, therefore, this fact alone would probably preclude Shur-Value from rebutting the presumption. Second, even assuming Shur-Value can rely on circumstantial evidence in support of its position, it has failed to present a sufficiently significant amount of circumstantial evidence to rebut the presumption of receipt. Shur-Value's admission that the POA was not in its files and that no one could remember receiving it does not, standing alone and viewed in the light most favorable to Shur-Value, create a justifiable inference that Shur-Value has effectively denied receiving it. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2513-14, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). To overcome the presumption of delivery and receipt, Shur-Value must offer substantial probative evidence to the contrary. Willits, 436 S.W.2d at 921. 19 For example, in Gulf Ins. Co. v. Cherry, 704 S.W.2d 459 (Tex.Ct.App.1986), the alleged recipient, Gulf Insurance Co., presented the testimony of the manager of the accounting services department to rebut the insured's assertion that the insurance company presumptively received her premium check. This witness testified in great detail as to the system for processing mail at Gulf, and concluded that [the insured's] check could not have been received [on time]. Id. at 461. The court concluded that [c]onsidering its large volume of mail and automated system, Gulf sufficiently rebutted the insured's presumption of delivery. Id. 20 In this case, however, Shur-Value has only demonstrated that the POA was not in its file and that no one could remember ever receiving it. Had Shur-Value presented specific facts suggesting, for example, that its receiving or filing departments customarily open all letters and file all forms and thus would have noticed Phillips' POA had it been sent, then Shur-Value would have presented sufficient facts to overcome Phillips' presumption of receipt. We must conclude that because Shur-Value did not and has not set forth this type of argument and this type of evidence, it simply cannot rebut the presumption. Cf. Beck v. Somerset Technologies, Inc., 882 F.2d 993, 996-97 (5th Cir.1989) (alleged recipient failed to rebut presumption of delivery because the only evidence of non-delivery presented was an employee's testimony that he could not remember receiving the letter and could not recall that the person who signed for the letter worked for the company); Roto-Lith, Ltd. v. F.P. Bartlett & Co., 297 F.2d 497, 498 (1st Cir.1962) (holding that there was an unrebutted presumption of receipt because the alleged recipient's principal witness could only testify that he did not know whether the acknowledgment was received, or what happened to it). 21 Shur-Value tries to excuse this failure of production on the amount of time afforded it during the telephone conference, contending that if it had had more time it could have provided additional evidentiary support by which to effectively, although not conclusively, rebut the presumption of delivery. This may be true. Certainly, the district court's procedures placed a heavier, more time-intensive burden on the plaintiff than conventional summary judgment motions do. And even though the telephone conference took place on the eve of trial--thereby affording Shur-Value enough time to review Phillips' time-bar defense 4 --trial preparation is, in many respects, significantly different than defending against a summary judgment motion. Cf. Stella v. Town of Tewksbury, Mass., 4 F.3d 53, 56 (1st Cir.1993). Despite these difficulties, however, Shur-Value has had an abundance of time to convince this court that it had the evidence necessary to rebut the presumption of delivery. Because it has not done so, 5 we must conclude that as a matter of law, Shur-Value received the POA form.