Court Opinion

ID: 9666514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:17:59.241255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:29.578903
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In their motion for rehearing appellants ask that we reconsider our action in striking the statement of facts from the record in this case. They point out that on August 5, 1957 they filed their motion for an extension of time to file the statement of facts. The motion was filed on the sixtieth day after the trial court had overruled appellants’ motion for new trial. A hearing on the motion for an extension of time was had on October 17, 1957, and on November 1, 1957 we granted a thirty-day extension. Appellants say, and we agree with them, that they are not to be blamed because we did not sooner act on their motion for an extension.
However it was not for that reason that we later, on motion filed by appellees, reconsidered our order and decided that appellants had not complied with Rule 386 T.R.C.P., consequently the statement should be stricken.
Appellants in an attempt to show that they could not have filed the statement within the sixty-day period, attached a letter dated August 2, 1957, from Mr. Ben Allred, Court Reporter, as follows:
“Replying to your inquiry you are advised that I have just returned from my vacation this week (was gone almost a month), and that it will not be possible to get out the statement of facts by Monday Aug. 5th which you say is your last day for filing.
“This statement of facts will run several hundred pages — testimony and 31 exhibits, and it would take me at least 2 weeks to get it out under pressure. If you could get an extension of time I would be glad to prepare the statement of facts, and would like if possible 30 days which would give me ample time to do it and carry on my court work without having to work too much overtime.”
A study of this letter reveals that appellants had merely made an inquiry of the Court Reporter. They had not requested or ordered a statement of facts from Mr. Allred.- . In a document filed September 24, 1957 appellees allege that upon inquiry *956made of Mr. Allred on September 23, 1957 they learned that even at that late date he had not yet been asked to proceed with the preparation of a statement of facts. This allegation was borne out by the present attorney for appellants (He had not tried the case and had not been brought into the case until sometime after the trial.), who at the hearing held October 17, 1957, admitted in response to a question,, that a statement of facts had not even then been ordered.
Following our order of November 1, 1957 a statement of facts was finally ordered by appellants, and was filed November 25, 1957, more than five months after the motion for new trial had been overruled by the trial court.
Meantime appellees on November 14, 1957 had filed a motion for rehearing, directed at our order of November 1, 1957. After carefully reconsidering the matter we sustained the motion for rehearing and ordered the statement of facts to be stricken from the record.
The reason for our striking the statement was that we were compelled to conclude that appellants could have filed the statement of facts within the sixty days provided by Rule 386 had they acted with diligence. The record shows that they did not even order a statement of facts until sometime after October 17, 1957 — more than four months after their motion for new trial had been overruled. No reason is shown why the Court Reporter could not have prepared the statement during the month before he went on his vacation. Further, he himself says that he could have had it ready within thirty days after his return from his vacation on August 5, 1957, or under pressure could have had the statement ready within two weeks thereafter. Yet he received no order for the statement until more than two months later.
It gives us no pleasure to strike a statement of facts from a record. We would much prefer that in every appeal we have a full record before us. But where, as in this case, a lack of diligence on the part of appellants accounts for the failure to-comply with Rule 386, we are given no choice. As our Supreme Court has said, in construing Rule 386 T.R.C.P., “Obviously, that restriction left the Court of Civil Appeals with but little discretion in determining whether or not to permit the late filing of a transcript.” Matlock v. Matlock, 151 Tex. 308, 249 S.W.2d 587, at. page 590. Rule 386 is equally applicable-to a statement of facts.
Appellants’ motion for rehearing is overruled.