Court Opinion

ID: 9652725
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:30:57.128192+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:53.758982
License: Public Domain

SEERDEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority’s holding that the appellant had waived his right to the submission of instructions and definitions concerning partial incapacity and diminished wage earning capacity by stipulating that the claimant had been injured and suffered some total disability is contrary to the general principles of waiver and could have a chilling effect on the worthy goal of having parties stipulate to undisputed facts and litigate only those matters which are genuinely in dispute. Appellant plead, as an alternative defensive theory, that any disability which may have extended beyond May 20, was partial and not total. There was evidence submitted which would justify an affirmative finding to these conditions.
The majority concedes that the requested instructions would be proper and should have been submitted except for the waiver. The conduct of appellant in this case was not sufficient to show a waiver of the defensive theory that any disability which existed after the period of total disability to which the stipulation applied was partial
*898and not total. Tex.R.Civ.P. 277 gives the trial court discretion as to the nature of the explanatory instructions to include in the charge. Whether the refusal to include the instructions in this case amounted to an abuse of discretion sufficient to require a remand for a new trial should be addressed by this Court. See Home Insurance Co. v. Gillum, 680 S.W.2d 844, 849 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1984, writ ref d n.r.e.).
For the reasons stated, I dissent from the majority’s holding in this case.