Opinion ID: 159203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Texas Common Law Constructive Fraud Claims

Text: 135 Prior to submitting the case to the jury, the Texas Plaintiffs proposed instructions, definitions, and verdict questions on their Texas common law constructive fraud claims. Over their objection, however, the district court refused to submit instructions or verdict questions to the jury relating to Texas constructive fraud. The court reasoned that those claims duplicated others and, alternatively, that the Texas Plaintiffs had failed to include a constructive fraud claim in the 1998 Pretrial Order. 136 In appealing the district court's decision, the Texas Plaintiffs maintain Rule 15(b) required the district court to amend the pleadings to include a constructive fraud claim. Their opening brief, however, does not offer any argument whatsoever that the Pretrial Order did in fact include a constructive fraud claim. The issue of the court's construction of the Pretrial Order is thus waived on appeal. 21 See Johnson ex rel. Johnson v. Thompson, 971 F.2d 1487, 1499 (10th Cir. 1992) (noting this court generally will not address issues that the parties failed to brief). Therefore, this court must only determine whether the district court properly declined to amend the Pretrial Order. We review that determination for an abuse of discretion. See Trierweiler, 90 F.3d at 1543. 137 Upon a party's motion, a trial court should amend the pretrial order to include issues not initially raised in that order but tried by express or implied consent of the parties. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(b). A trial court should find such implied consent either when the consenting party introduces evidence on the new issue or fails to object when the other party introduces such evidence. See Hardin, 691 F.2d at 457. This court, however, has determined that [w]hen the evidence claimed to show that an issue was tried by consent is relevant to an issue already in the case, and there is no indication that the party presenting the evidence intended thereby to raise a new issue, amendment may be denied in the discretion of the trial court. Id. The Texas Plaintiffs fully concede that the evidence presented at trial to support a constructive fraud claim precisely matched that evidence relevant to several of their other claims. Therefore, the Defendants did not impliedly consent to the trial of constructive fraud, and the district court acted well within its discretion in declining to amend the pretrial order to include an admittedly duplicative claim.