Court Opinion

ID: 9647702
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:47:49.345552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:52.354401
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
On April 17, 1967, appellants filed a motion herein for an extension of time within which to file a statement of facts. The reason given was that the court reporter who reported the case had been unable to prepare the statement of facts as shown by an attached affidavit of such reporter. We quote from this affidavit:
“I am a free lance independent court reporter residing in Houston, Harris County, Texas. I do court reporting as a profession, taking depositions and very frequently fill in for official court reporters when they are unable to be in attendance in their regular court. Because of the illness of the Official Court Reporter, Mr. A. C. Fridge, I was requested to take, and did take and report the cause of Billie Barbara Hall, et vir, vs. James Patterson, et al, No. 8269, in the District Court of Hays County, Texas, such trial beginning on October 31, 1966, and testimony having been received from lb witnesses for three days.
Immediately after the trial, being November 4, 1966, James L. Cutcher of
*926Taylor, Texas, one of the attorneys for the Defendants, James Patterson, et al, called me by long distance telephone and at that time ordered a transcript of the Objections to the Court’s Charge, and in such telephone conversation Mr. Cutcher also advised me that he would need a Statement of Facts. On this occasion Mr. Cutcher advised me that he would file a Motion for New Trial and desired to use a copy of the Statement of Facts at the time of arguing his Motion for Net (sic) Trial and further advised me that he desired to have the Statement of Facts transcribed, regardless of whether the Court did grant a new trial or not.
On December 9, 1966, 1 mailed the transcription of the Objections to the Court’s Charge, together with my letter dated December 9, 1966, stating that I would need a deposit of $500.00 before beginning work on the Statement of Facts, a copy of which letter is attached hereto. Thereafter, I received a letter from Mr. Cutcher dated December 27, 1966, a copy of which is attached hereto. I later received a letter from Mr. Cutcher dated February 23, 1967, on February 25, 1967, together with checks totaling $500.00 as deposit on the Statement of Facts, a copy of which letter is attached hereto.
Since February 25, 1967 when the Statement of Facts was ordered, my workload, consisting of depositions, Statement of Facts and substituting in various courts in Houston, LaGrange and Lock-hart, has continued to increase. This, coupled with the fact that I have had to take care of some private matters outside of my regular duty as a court reporter has caused me to be unable to transcribe the Statement of Facts as ordered by Mr. Cutcher.
Mr. Cutcher telephoned me sometime during the first week of March asking about the Statement of Facts. At that time I was advised for the first time the Statement of Facts was due some time the very last of March. At that time I informed Mr. Cutcher it would be impossible for me to have the Statement of Facts prepared by the date he had informed me it was due.
As of this date I have been unable to begin on the Statement of Facts and I feel it will take at least forty-five (45) days with the workload I am now carrying before I will be able to finish the Statement of Facts.
WITNESS MY HAND this _14th day of April, 1967
/s/ M. A. Baker, Jr.
M. A. Baker, Jr.”
We also copy below the letter from appellants’ attorneys to Mr. Baker dated December 27, 1960:
“Dear Mr. Baker:
Enclosed please find our check in the sum of $20.00 for payment of reporting voir dire and transcribing objections to the Court’s charge.
We are discussing with our clients your requirement of payment in advance on the Statement of Facts and will forward the same soon. We have borne all expenses for these people as we are not worried about the money since there is an additional 700 acre tract of land out of which we will recoup all expenses. However, we would like for them to get their feet wet in this thing then they will be more personally involved and, therefore, we have requested that they furnish the $500.00 deposit to you.
When I send you the deposit, I will also send the deposition and letter.”
On April 26, 1967, we overruled the motion of appellants but granted motion to amend as shown by the following order:
“Appellants’ Motion for Extension of Time to File Statement of Facts in the above cause was today submitted and overruled, with leave granted to amend his motion within ten days from this date by showing, if he can, that if the *927Statement of Facts had been ordered earlier, say within a week of the date when the motion for new trial was overruled, that, nevertheless, the court reporter could not have completed the statement of facts within the sixty days allowed.”
On May 8, 1967, appellants amended their motion by filing an affidavit of Mr. Cutcher, an attorney for appellants, and by filing an additional affidavit from Mr. Baker.
We quote from the affidavit of Mr. Cutcher:
“The Motion for New Trial in this cause was overruled and ordered entered on February 1, 1967. Affiant, at such time, was in the process of preparing for a jury trial in the District Court of Williamson County, Texas, which was to be tried on February 6, 1967, and which was the first cause on the jury docket at such time, which said cause was, in fact, tried and terminated on February 6, 1967. Your Affiant had been advised by the Court Reporter, M. A. Baker, Jr., of Houston Texas, that such Court Reporter required a cash deposit of $500.00 prior to beginning the preparation of the Statement of Facts in this cause and Affiant, therefore, had his clients conform to such request. On February 10, 1967, Affiant attempted to contact his clients to secure such funds for the deposit, such clients having previously agreed that the Patterson family would furnish $250.00 of said deposit and Mrs. Matie E. McKellar would furnish the other $250.00, as this represented their proportionate interest among themselves in the cause of action. ' This Affiant was advised that Mrs. Matie E. McKellar, who is elderly, was out of the State of Texas and, therefore, this Af-fiant, on February 10, 1967, called Mr. Edwin I. McKellar, Jr., Attorney at Law of Houston, Texas, who is the son of Mrs. Matie E. McKellar, and this Affiant was then advised that Mrs. Matie E. McKellar was then in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where she had gone to visit her daughter, this Affiant being further advised by Mr. Edwin I. McKellar, Jr., that Mrs. Matie E. McKellar had become seriously ill while visiting her daughter in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, had been hospitalized and had undergone a surgical operation, whereupon Mr. McKellar stated that he would contact his mother and have her furnish such funds. Mr. McKellar did so contact his mother and her check was received by this Affiant February 22, 1967, and said check was then placed with the check of the Patterson family and was mailed to said Court Reporter by this Affiant on February 23, 1967.
Thereafter, this Affiant called such Court Reporter during the first week of March to inquire what progress such Court Reporter was making on transcribing such Statement of Facts, and this Affiant has personally called said Court Reporter nine times thereafter, attempting to either secure the Statement of Facts or an affidavit from said Reporter showing why the same has not been completed.
Such Court Reporter has stated to this Affiant in telephone conversations that he, the said Court Reporter, would not have been able to transcribe the Statement of Facts even if he had received the deposit immediately after February 1, 1967; however, said Court Reporter, thereafter, has refused to make such statement in an affidavit where it could be filed with the Court. Such Court Reporter has also advised this Affiant in such telephone conversations that since receiving the $500.00 deposit he, the said Court Reporter, has thereafter taken and transcribed certain depositions for other attorneys who were his regular customers in Houston, Texas, thereby giving preference to such work of his regular customers.
This Affiant has discussed with such Court Reporter the contents of affidavits *928to be filed with the Court of Civil Appeals ; however, such Court Reporter, after having advised this Affiant of facts which he would include in an affidavit to be filed by him, such Court Reporter did not so include such facts and such Court Reporter would not sign any affidavit that he did not personally prepare himself. Affiant states that the two affidavits signed by such Court Reporter and filed with the Court of Civil Appeals were not prepared by this Affiant, but were furnished to this Affiant by the Court Reporter and, in fact, when this Affiant was advised by the Clerk’s Office by their letter of April 26, 1967, to the effect that Appellants’ Motion for Extension of Time to File the Statement of Facts in this cause was overruled with leave granted to amend the Motion within ten (10) days, this Affiant called such Court Reporter and advised such Court Reporter of the overruling of the Court and requested that the Court Reporter sign an affidavit showing the facts that such Court Reporter had related to this Affiant orally, and said Court Reporter advised this Affiant that he, the said Court Reporter, ‘did not see the necessity of a further affidavit.’ However, thereafter, said Court Reporter did execute the affidavit dated May 6, 1967, which, as stated above, was prepared by the said Court Reporter.”
We quote from the affidavit of Mr. Baker:
“It is my opinion that I would not have been able to prepare the statement of facts so that it could have been filed within the time allowed by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure if I had received the order for the statement of facts several days prior to February 25, 1967, the date received, and perhaps as long as a week prior to such date.”
Also we copy a letter from Mr. Baker to an attorney for appellee, dated May 6, 1967.
“In accordance with my advice to you that I would furnish to you a copy of any affidavit or statement which I furnished to opposing counsel, I enclose herewith a copy of affidavit which I have this day mailed to Mr. Cutcher.
For your information, Mr. Cutcher was rather insistent that I should make a statement that if I had received the order even two weeks earlier than I received it I still could not have prepared the statement of facts in time; but I felt I could not truly make such a statement as to any time more than a week prior to February 25, 1967.”
We adhere to our previous ruling in denying appellants’ motion for an extension of time within which to file a statement of facts.
Notice of appeal was given on February 1, 1967.
Rule 377(c), T.R.C.P. provides, in part, that, “Promptly after notice of appeal is given and where a request is made of the official court reporter for the preparation of a transcript of all or any part of the evidence adduced on the trial of the case * * certain steps must be taken.
This rule clearly requires that a statement of facts must be requested promptly after notice of appeal is given.
Our holding simply is that waiting twenty-three or twenty-four days before ordering a statement of facts is not acting promptly within the above rule and that unless it be shown that had the statement of facts been ordered promptly it still could not have been prepared within the time allowed good cause within Rule 386, T.R. C.P., as construed in Matlock v. Matlock, 151 Tex. 308, 249 S.W.2d 587, is not shown. There the Court emphasized that under the Rule appellant must show “good cause why he could not file” (italics ours) the record timely, and further stated that Courts of Civil Appeals have but little dis*929cretion in determining whether to permit the late filing of a transcript.
The affidavit of the court reporter here merely shows that had the statement of facts been ordered a week earlier, he could not have prepared it in time. This showing does not meet the requirement of Matlock that appellant must show good cause why he could not timely file the statement of facts. See Douglas v. Wheeler, 306 S.W.2d 956, Tex.Civ.App. Austin, writ ref. n. r. e.
We are aware of the Supreme Court opinion in Wigley v. Taylor, Tex., 393 S.W.2d 170, where the Court without citing Matlock states “ * * * we cannot say that the Court of Civil Appeals abused its discretion in denying the motion (under Rule 386, T.R.C.P.) inasmuch as counsel waited forty-eight days after judgment was entered by the trial court before ordering the transcript.”
If by that language the Court implies that the Court of Civil Appeals in Wigley had the discretion to grant such motion notwithstanding the forty-eight day delay in ordering the transcript, then this Court certainly would have the discretion to grant the motion before us. Under the affirmative authorities cited herein, we do not believe we have discretionary authority to grant appellants’ motion. If, however, we do have such authority, we would, without hesitation, grant the motion.
Appellants say that they find themselves at the mercy of the court reporter. We agree. The records of this Court disclose that the court reporter and clerk of the trial court have the power of life and death over appeals. This is an unhealthy situation which only the rulemakers can remedy.
We did not write on this question in our original opinion for the reason that no assignment of error pertaining thereto was in appellants’ brief.
The motion is overruled.
Motion Overruled