Court Opinion

ID: 9769108
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:32:19.931502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:57.910413
License: Public Domain

FOWLER Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority but write separately to disagree with the application of the Craddock test to appellant’s failure to appear at the summary judgment hearing. See Craddock v. Sunshine Bus Lines, 134 Tex. 388, 133 S.W.2d 124 (1934). I disagree with its application because a summary judgment hearing is not an evidentiary hearing; the judge’s decision whether to grant a summary judgment motion depends on documents filed with the court, not on arguments made at the oral hearing. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c), (d). In fact, if we look at the types of proceedings that Craddock has been applied to, we find that they are dispositive, evidentiary hearings. An oral hearing on a motion for summary judgment is not a dispositive, evidentia-ry hearing. To be sure, evidence has been presented to the judge, but not at the hearing; the evidence is all contained in the motion and response, and any judgment entered in the case must be based on these documents and the pleadings. See id. A short review of the proceedings and events Craddock has been applied to illustrates this point.
Initially, the Craddock test was applied when a party failed to answer a lawsuit and a judgment was rendered against the party. See Craddock, 133 S.W.2d at 124-26. By failing to answer, the party was prejudiced because it was deemed to admit the allegations in the plaintiffs pleadings. Craddock was applied so that those parties who met the three prongs of Craddock could present their defense. See id. Later, Craddock was applied when a party answered a suit but missed the trial and a judgment was ren*803dered against it. See Director, State Employees Workers’ Compensation Div. v. Evans, 889 S.W.2d 266, 269 (Tex.1994) (stating that a state agency was entitled to a new trial because its failure to appear at trial was a mistake); Onyeanu v. Rivertree Apartments, 920 S.W.2d 397, 398 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, no writ) (stating that a party was entitled to new trial when lawyer proved that he went to courtroom on day and time of trial and, when (1) courtroom was empty and (2) he saw note that judge was at a seminar, concluded that trial was rescheduled). By failing to appear at trial, the defendant was prejudiced because it lost its chance to present evidence and testimony supporting its position. In these cases, once again, Craddock allowed those parties meeting its three prongs to present their defense.
More recently, Craddock has been applied to dismissals of cases for failure to prosecute. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 165a; Smith v. Babcock & Wilcox Constr. Co., 913 S.W.2d 467, 468 (Tex.1995) (stating that the standard for determining if a ease dismissed for want of prosecution should be reinstated is the Craddock standard). By failing to respond to the trial court’s notice of its intent to dismiss for failure to prosecute, the defendant’s position was prejudiced when the case was dismissed from the court’s docket. As with the other situations, a party who met the Craddock standard, was allowed to have their case reinstated. Finally, some courts of appeals — not all of them — have applied Crad-dock when a party has failed to respond in writing to a motion for summary judgment. See Medina v. Western Waste Indus., 959 S.W.2d 328, 329-31 (Tex.App.—Houston [14 th Dist.] 1997, writ denied); Washington v. McMillan, 898 S.W.2d 392, 395-97 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1995, no writ); Gonzales v. Surplus Ins. Servs., 863 S.W.2d 96, 102 (Tex.App.—Beaumont 1993, writ denied); but see Rabe v. Guaranty National Ins. Co., 787 S.W.2d 575, 579 (Tex.App.—Houston [1 st Dist.] 1990, writ denied); Enernational Corp. v. Exploitation Eng’rs., Inc., 705 S.W.2d 749, 751 (Tex.App.—Houston [1 st Dist.] 1986, writ ref d n.r.e.). In this setting, the responding party may have been prejudiced by not responding to the movant’s dis-positive motion, although, as the First Court of Appeals has pointed out in its opinions, the summary judgment motion should not be granted just because the respondent failed to reply. It should be granted only because the motion was valid and the respondent failed to controvert the evidence presented. In any event, once again, a defaulting party was able to present its defense or raise a fact issue if it met Craddock.
These cases all have two facts in common: (1) the “defaulting party” failed to appeal', either in writing or in person, on the date the party was required to appear for a disposi-tive motion; and (2) the party’s failure to appear and defend itself, compromised or prejudiced the party’s legal position, and, in some cases, enabled the trial court to enter a judgment against it. In contrast, an oral hearing on a summary judgment motion has neither of these characteristics: (1) it is not a dispositive hearing, i.e. the judge cannot rule on the motion based on the oral arguments, she must make the decision based on the motion and response and the evidence attached to them,1 and (2) since the ruling must be based on the documents before the court, the party’s failure to appear at the oral hearing.2 Certainly, a party would, and should, be upset if it did not receive notice of the oral hearing, and should let the court know that it did not receive notice of the hearing. A party could even request that the trial court hold another hearing to allow it to argue its case; many judges would grant such a request. Nonetheless, the fact remains that in a summary judgment proceeding, the filing of the documents is the *804dispositive event; the hearing is not the dis-positive event.
In short, even though appellant did not appear at the oral hearing, appellant’s rights were fully protected by the response it filed. Consequently, since the court was bound to look only at the documents before it, I would hold that the Craddock test should not be applied when a party files a response to a motion for summary judgment, but fails to appear for the oral hearing on the motion.3 In my opinion, the majority should not have applied the Craddock test and instead should have looked directly to the motion for summary judgment and response to determine if the summary judgment should stand or be set aside.

. The courts arc subject to very strict guidelines as to what they may and may not consider in a motion for summary judgment. See, e.g., McConnell v. Southside Indep. School Dist., 858 S.W.2d 337, 339-44 (Tex.1993); City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Auth., 589 S.W.2d 671, 678-79 (Tex.1979).

. In fact, in many counties, judges are not holding oral hearings on motions for summary judgment. They are ruling without the benefit of oral argument. Furthermore, when a party appeals a summary judgment, the appellate court looks only at the documents before the trial court and the arguments made in them; oral argument is never transcribed or considered.

. I am aware that this conclusion is contrary to an opinion issued by the Fifth Court of Appeals. See Mosser v. Plano Three Venture, 893 S.W.2d 8, 11-12 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1994, no writ). I disagree with the reasoning in that decision, which held that the nonmovant's due process rights were violated when he did not receive notice of the hearing.