Court Opinion

ID: 9679853
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:11:04.131046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:22.241061
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
PER CURIAM.
On motion for rehearing, SWEPCO directs the court’s attention to a letter sent by Vernon A. Williams, Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to the trial court during trial of this matter. In the letter, Secretary Williams states that the certification date stamped on the Sandgren deposition is incorrect. The letter confirms that the correct date on which SWEPCO received the certified copy of the deposition from the ICC was not September 11,1994, as the stamp indicates, but instead October 11, 1994. SWEPCO introduced this letter into evidence on November 16, 1994, and on the basis of the information contained therein, asked the trial court to reverse its earlier ruling excluding the Sandgren deposition. The court once again refused to admit the deposition, however, ruling that SWEPCO had still failed to show good cause for not producing the document earlier. SWEPCO now contends that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding the deposition after receiving uneontroverted evidence that the original certification date was incorrect, and that this error probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment.
After reviewing the record, we believe that it was within the trial court’s discretion to exclude the deposition despite the evidence of the incorrect certification date. Counsel for SWEPCO told the trial court that it discovered the document in its files on September 30, 1994. The deposition itself, however, was taken in an unrelated proceeding before the ICC on June 21, 1979. In a request for production made April 28, 1994, Burlington asked SWEPCO to produce any sworn testimony given previously by Sand-gren which SWEPCO intended to use at trial. SWEPCO responded that it had no such statements in its possession.
On October 7, 1994, counsel for SWEPCO sent a letter to Burlington stating that it had discovered the Sandgren deposition in its files. In the letter, SWEPCO identified the date of the deposition and the docket number of the proceeding in which it was taken, but did not include a copy of the document. Burlington then made specific requests on October 12 and October 17 for a copy of the document. SWEPCO finally produced a copy of the document on October 21, after trial had begun.
Based on this evidence, the trial court could have found that SWEPCO had a duty to furnish the document to Burlington earlier than it did. The evidence indicated that the document was in the files of SWEPCO’s counsel long before it was claimed to have been discovered. The trial court could have concluded that had SWEPCO been diligent in responding to the request for production, it could have located and furnished the document earlier. Furthermore, the court could have found that it was unreasonable for SWEPCO to fail to enclose a copy of the deposition in the letter notifying Burlington of the existence of the document, and that SWEPCO’s ultimate production of the document after trial had begun was therefore unreasonably late. See Foster v. Cunningham, 825 S.W.2d 806, 808-09 (Tex.App.— Fort Worth 1992, writ denied) (evidence dis*101covered five days before trial properly excluded where counsel had convenient opportunity to promptly apprise opposing counsel of the evidence, but failed to do so). The trial court thus did not err in excluding the deposition.
Furthermore, even if we believed that the court’s exclusion of the evidence was error, we would hold that the error was not so serious as to warrant reversal. SWEPCO argues that the excluded testimony was crucial, because it demonstrated that Sandgren, a top Burlington official, once interpreted the gross inequity clause of the contracts in the same manner SWEPCO urged that they be interpreted at trial. The trial court allowed SWEPCO, however, to offer extensive evidence of substantially similar statements made by other high-ranking Burlington officials. SWEPCO relied heavily on this evidence in its arguments to the jury, advancing precisely the theory it now claims it was precluded from presenting at trial. Because the excluded evidence was thus substantially similar to other, admitted evidence, any error committed by the trial court probably did not cause the rendition of an improper judgment in this case. Tex.R.App.P. 81(b)(1).
The motion for rehearing is overruled.