Court Opinion

ID: 9681707
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:55:03.546416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:35.521301
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Appellee’s Motion for Rehearing raises for the first time the question of failure to properly assign error in the trial Court as to a point of error which has been sustained on appeal. Some discussion is essential because the answer to the issue is neither simple nor easy.
First, Appellants’ brief presents as the third point of error the following:
“The Trial Court erred in entering judgment for Appellee based upon the jury verdict for the reason that, as a matter of law, the response of the jury to Special Issue No. 3 could not form the basis upon which the Court could render a proper judgment.”
That point and the following point, which raised a question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the answer to Special Issue No. 3, were argued together. None of Appellants’ points of error were shown to be germane to assignments of error in the trial Court as required by Rule 418(b), Tex. R.Civ.P.
Appellee, by its first reply point, urged that “Appellants’ objections to the damage issue, Special Issue No. 3, are too general to comply with Rule 274, and cannot be considered on appeal.” While the reply point was stated to be in reply to Appellants’ points of error one and three, it did not actually reply to point three which was related to the jury verdict as a basis for judgment, rather than objections to the charge, as was raised by point of error number one. We did sustain the first reply point insofar as it related to point of error number one because the objections to the Court’s charge were too general to be considered.
Appellee’s reply points two and three were also in reply to Appellants’ point of error number three. Those reply points were on the merits of the issue raised by the third point of error.
Having lost on each of the propositions set forth in reply to Appellants’ third point of error, Appellee now seeks a second bite at the apple and for the first time, on motion for rehearing, urges that there is no assignment of error in the trial Court to raise the third point of error. He relies primarily on Wagner v. Foster, 161 Tex. 333, 341 S.W.2d 887 (1960). The Appellant has filed no reply to the motion for rehearing. We are well aware of the need for proper assignment in order to preserve error for appeal. See W. T. Grant Company v. Key, 433 S.W.2d 163 (Tex.1968).
The final question is when must the issue be raised. In the Wagner case, the points sustained by the Court of Civil Appeals were alleged to present fundamental error and thus there was no need for a proper assignment in the trial Court. The Supreme Court concluded that the error was not fundamental and, not having been properly assigned, the points could not be considered. In the W. T. Grant Company case, Appellee’s counterpoint one in the Court of Civil Appeals was that there was no proper assignment of error in the trial Court as to the issues raised by Appellant’s points of error one and two. The argument in that counterpoint placed reliance upon Wagner v. Foster, supra; Oilfield Haulers Ass’n. v. Railroad Commission, 381 S.W.2d 183 (Tex.1964); and Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821 (Tex.1965). Thus, the issue of lack of as*280signment of error in the trial Court was before the Court of Civil Appeals and was properly preserved for determination in the application for writ of error.
In the present case, Appellee chose to do battle on the merits of the issue presented in the third point of error and lost. Now he claims for the first time that there should have been no battle because the issue was not properly raised in the trial Court. May one wait until after an issue has been decided adversely on the merits and then complain for the first time on motion for rehearing about a failure to properly assign the error? There are many cases holding that a new issue may not be raised for the first time on appeal. 4 Tex.Dig., Appeal and Error, Key No. 835(2).
In Southern Gas & Gasoline Engine Co. v. Adams & Peters, 169 S.W. 1143 (Tex.Civ.App.-San Antonio 1914, writ ref’d), the Court, on motion for rehearing, said:
“Appellees urge, in their motion for a rehearing, that this court erred in sustaining appellant’s assignments of error numbered 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 for the reason that said assignments complained of the errors of the trial court in either giving charges or refusing charges to the jury, and that there are no bills of exception in the record to the action of the court complained of in the assignments, and therefore this court had no power to consider and determine such assignments.
“Both parties to this appeal filed lengthy and able briefs, but appellees nowhere in their brief made any objection to the consideration of these assignments. Nor was our attention ever called to the fact that no bills of exception were reserved to the action of the court in such matter until the motion for a rehearing was filed. Under rule 40 this court is authorized to rely upon the briefs for a proper presentation of the case on appeal, without an examination of the record; and to assume that if there were any objections to the assignments or to the matters upon which the same were predicated, the other party would call our attention to it. Rule 41 (142 S.W. xiv), expressly provides that:
‘Whatever of the statements of appellant or plaintiff in error in his brief is not contested will be considered as acquiesced in.’
“We did not go into the lengthy transcript to see if there were preserved bills of exception, but assumed that, if counsel for appellees had any objection to the consideration of said assignments, the same would have been made known to us. Appellant insists that objections or exceptions were preserved and are shown in the record; but that is aside from the question. To tolerate a practice of this kind would virtually require a resubmission of the case. Certainly another consideration along a line not heretofore presented to us. It would be equivalent to giving a party two opportunities to brief the case. No matter what disposition this court would have made of these assignments, had timely objection been made, when able counsel present to us a brief upon all of them, in which they are presumed to urge every point favorable to them and do not raise the question, now for the first time urged, until a motion for rehearing, this court will consider that any other objection not contained in the brief was waived, unless it be some matter of fundamental law. And this is not a question of fundamental law, being purely one of procedure.”
The following year, the court in Taylor v. First State Bank of Hawley, 178 S.W. 35 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1915, no writ), overruling a motion for rehearing wrote:
“Appellee also insists that we erred in the conclusion that there was no evidence of fraud, and in here rendering the judgment, for the reason that appellant on the trial below made no objection to the court’s charge submitting the issue of fraud, and, on the contrary, requested a special charge on the subject, thus, as is contended, waiving any right on appeal to question the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict of the jury in *281appellee’s favor on that issue. On original hearing appellee made no such objection to a consideration of the assignments of error in this case, at least one of which directly attacked the judgment for want of sufficient evidence to sustain it on the issue of fraud, and it is now too late to do so. See opinion on rehearing in Southern Gas & Gasoline Engine Co. v. Adams & Peters, 169 S.W. 1149.”
The above two cases served as a basis for the conclusion reached on motion for rehearing in Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Downing, 218 S.W. 112 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1919, writ ref’d), where the court said:
“Appellee, in his motion for rehearing, calls our attention to the fact that the proceedings of the trial court, in respect to the motion to require a physical examination of the plaintiff, are not embodied in a formal bill of exceptions, but are preserved in the record only by the motion itself and order overruling it, which recites therein an exception on the part of the defendant, copied separately in the transcript, the statement of the evidence heard on the motion appearing in the statement of facts. Appellee now asserts that we were without authority to consider the assignment because of the absence of a bill of exceptions, as required by the rules. If this objection to the consideration of the assignment had been presented at the proper time, we would have felt bound to have sustained it. Rules 53, 54, and 55 (142 S.W. xxi) for the District and County Courts; Weatherford M. W., etc., Ry. Co. v. Smith, 170 S.W. 133; Panhandle, etc., Ry. Co. v. Kirby, 108 S.W. 498; Dixon v. Cooper, 178 S.W. 695; Paris, etc., Ry. Co. v. Boston, 142 S.W. 944.
“The case was fully briefed by both parties, and was orally argued on original submission, and no such objection to the consideration of the assignment was then urged by appellee. The appellant, in the statement under the assignment, copied the motion in full, referred to the evidence introduced on its hearing, and stated that the court overruled the motion, and that appellant duly excepted to such action. The statement also referred to other proceedings had which were thought to have a bearing on the propriety of the action of the court on the motion. We think we were justified in considering the assignment on the uncontested statement made by appellant, and that it is now too late for appellee to urge this objection. Rules 40 and 41 (142 S.W. xiv) for the Courts of Civil Appeals; Southern Gas & Gasoline Engine Co. v. Adams & Peters, 169 S.W. 1149, opinion on motion for rehearing (writ of error was refused in this case); Taylor v. First State Bank, 178 S.W. 38, opinion on motion for rehearing.”
Part of the problem arises from this Court’s failure to require strict compliance by the Appellants with Rule 418. Unfortunately, this is a defect which appears in many appellants’ briefs filed in this Court. But, Appellee having filed his reply brief and having raised no question about the assignment of error to support point of error number three, we believe the Court properly considered the issue raised by the point of error and the objection concerning a proper assignment in the trial Court comes too late and is waived for failure to timely raise the issue.
We have also considered the other points of error in the Appellee’s Motion for Rehearing and all of the points are overruled and the Motion for Rehearing is denied.