Court Opinion

ID: 9645652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:31:24.935653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:30.176088
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION ON DENIAL OF EN BANC REVIEW1
DUNCAN, Justice,
joined by
GREEN, Justice.
The majority opinion in this case is more “dangerous” than is apparent from the dissent. The issue is not simply whether error was timely and properly preserved, the focus of the dissent, but whether this court is required to find trial court error at all— under the appropriate standard of review— before proceeding to a harm analysis. However much we may disagree on the substantive issues involved in this appeal, there is only one legitimate resolution of this procedural issue: All appellate courts are required in all cases to apply the appropriate standard of review and find trial court error before they proceed to a harm analysis. Because the majority has failed to adhere to this fundamental principle of appellate review in this case, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s denial of en banc review.
The structure of the majority’s opinion reveals its fatal flaw. The majority holds that a district court’s failure to comply with statutes regulating the selection of petit jurors is not fundamental error; therefore, the error must be preserved by a timely objection and ruling. Mann v. Ramirez, 905 S.W.2d 275, 278 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1995, n.w.h.) (“Fundamental Error”). The majority then holds that an objection to a district court’s failure to comply with the statutes regulating the selection of petit jurors is timely, despite the fact that it is not raised until a post-verdict motion for mistrial and a post-judgment motion for new trial. Id. at 278-280 (“Waiver”). Inexplicably, however, the majority then presumes trial court error in the fourth sentence of its “Analysis” and turns immediately to a determination of whether the presumed error was harmful: ‘We must therefore examine the totality of the circumstances to determine whether the aggregate of errors, when assessed in combination with the relationship involved, raises the error to the level that would require a reversal of the trial court’s judgment and the granting of a new trial.”2 Indeed, the majority does not even address the subject of trial court error until the concluding paragraph of its opinion. Even then, the subject is relegated to a single sentence, devoid of any legal authority or analysis: ‘We conclude the trial court abused its discretion in denying a mistrial and erred in failing to grant a new trial, in light of the totality of the record and the evidence adduced at the posttrial hearing.”
In short, the flaw in the majority opinion is that it contains no analysis of trial court error under the appropriate standard of review. And it is this structural flaw in the majority’s opinion that, in my view, obscures the fatal defect in the Manns’ complaint regarding the selection of the jury.
As the majority recognizes, a challenge to the array is governed by Rule 221, Tex.R.Civ.P. The complaining party must therefore show that “the officer summoning the jury has acted corruptly, and wilfully summoned jurors known to be prejudiced against the party challenging or biased in favor of *288the adverse party.” Id. at 278. The issue, of course, is the randomness of the jurors summoned or, in this case, not improperly excused.3 The trial court’s action in sustaining or overruling a challenge to the array is governed by an abuse of discretion standard. Id. at 283.
To establish an abuse of discretion, the complaining party must demonstrate that the trial court acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, or without reference to guiding rules and principles. Downer v. Aquamarine Operators, 701 S.W.2d 238, 241-42 (Tex.1985). Therefore, in the context of factual matters — such as whether the summoning officer “acted corruptly” or “wilfully summoned jurors known to be prejudiced against the party challenging or biased in favor of the adverse party”— the record must establish that the trial court could reasonably have reached only one conclusion, and it reached a contrary conclusion. Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 839-40 (Tex.1992).
In this ease, the trial judge made “a sincere effort to reach an appropriate decision, made a thorough inquiry into the [Manns’] allegations at both the hearing on the Motion for Mistrial and at the hearing on the Motion for New Trial. Moreover, the trial judge’s comments from the bench reflected his understanding, gained from observation and personal experience, of unsanetioned procedural shortcuts which may be employed at times in the implementation of our justice system.” Id. at 282-283. This court has also made a similar observation and, in fact, has refused to condone precisely the statutory violations that occurred in this case. See Biegajski v. State, 653 S.W.2d 624, 629 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1983, pet. ref'd). But merely refusing to condone a statutory violation does not establish trial court error, as this court recognized in Biegajski in holding that the appellant in that case failed to demonstrate error because he made no effort to attach the absent jurors in compliance with the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Id.
The question in this case therefore remains whether the trial judge erred — abused his discretion — because the record before him required a finding that the personnel in the clerk’s office “acted corruptly” or “wilfully summoned jurors known to be prejudiced against the party challenging or biased in favor of the adverse party.” If so, and presuming the error was timely and properly preserved, then the trial court abused its discretion by denying the motions for mistrial and new trial. If not, the Manns have not borne their burden of bringing forward a record demonstrating error, harmful or not.
In my view, the record in this case does not begin to establish an abuse of discretion. For instance, the trial court could easily have believed the office personnel’s unequivocal and consistent testimony that the unauthorized excuses were standard procedure, however wrong they may have been, and that they were not intended “to affect any part of this process.” If so, the fact of Dawn McCormick’s relationship with the Manns’ attorney was as irrelevant as Brenda Fudge’s relationship with David Massengale, since neither relationship affected the jury selection process for or against the Manns. In short, the record before the trial court, in my view, easily permitted a finding that the office personnel did not, through their unauthorized excuses, “act[ ] corruptly” or “wilfully summon] ] jurors known to be prejudiced against the [Manns] or biased in favor of [Ramirez or Dyno Chem].”
The majority concludes, however, that the evidence before the trial court raised “a strong inference” that “the actions taken may have been intended to, and did, prejudice the rights of the [Manns].” Id. at 283 (emphasis added).4 However, “[t]he mere *289fact that a trial court may decide a matter ■within its discretionary authority differently from a reviewing court does not demonstrate that an abuse of discretion has occurred.” Downer, 701 S.W.2d at 242. The mere fact that the majority finds a “strong inference” of an intent to corrupt the jury selection process is simply not dispositive of error analysis under an abuse of discretion standard.
In conclusion, I dissent from the majority’s denial of en banc review because the analysis employed by the panel majority completely fails to comport with the most fundamental principles of appellate review. Some may view this as promoting form over substance. I do not. How many times do we, as judges, observe that if a litigant would honestly confront the applicable standard of review, she would realize the futility of her challenge? And how can we ask that practitioners do so when we are unwilling to lead the way? At the very least, this court should recognize and attempt to apply the appropriate standard of review to the record before the trial court before conducting harmful error analysis under either the Tamburello or Rule 81(b)(1) standard.

. Pursuant to Rule 100©, a justice of this court called for en banc review. A majority of the justices of this court have denied en banc review.

. Alternatively, since there has been absolutely no discussion in the majority opinion of trial court error prior to this point, the majority may be speaking of errors by the district clerk’s office. We are not, however, charged with reviewing error by the clerk; we are charged with reviewing error by the trial court.

. The trial judge in this case phrased the issue similarly: "[D]o you really have defective proceedings when you don’t necessarily follow the statute? That’s the 64-dollar issue.” See Nolan v. United States, 395 F.2d 283 (5th Cir.1968) (deputy clerk's office striking of prospective jurors she thought judge would excuse was improper, but not shown to have deprived list of requisite randomness); cf. Rivas v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 480 S.W.2d 610, 612 (Tex.1972) (procedure in violation of Rule 223, Tex.R.Civ.P., is subject to harmful error analysis, and focus is on the randomness of the jury panel).

. The majority’s conclusion is noteworthy for a second reason. In holding that it would find reversible error even under the usual standard contained in Rule 81(b)(1), the majority con-*289eludes its analysis by stating only that the record raises a “strong inference” that the statutory violations “prejudice[d] the rights of the [Manns].” Prejudicing a litigant’s rights, however, is not the gist of harmful error under Rule 81(b)(1). To the contrary, the crux of harmful error is that the error complained of so prejudiced a litigant's rights that the error “probably did cause the rendition of an improper judgment.” Tex.R.App.P. 81(b)(1). These words are noticeably absent from the majority's harmful error analysis under Rule 81(b)(1).