Court Opinion

ID: 9776339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:30:56.283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:37.511408
License: Public Domain

DUNCAN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s judgment dismissing this appeal for want of jurisdiction. Even if the severance were improper, it would not deprive this court of jurisdiction over Stroud’s appeal; it would merely establish error. In my view, however, the severance was within the considerable ambit of the trial judge’s discretion in severance matters and Stroud has, in any event, waived error on his first point of error. I would therefore address Stroud’s remaining points of error.
JURISDICTION
The majority holds that, “if the severance was improper under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and case law, this judgment is ‘interlocutory and non-appealable [and] this Court would be without jurisdiction and dismissal of the appeal would be the appropriate disposition.’ ” Opinion at 2, (quoting Cass v. Stephens, 823 S.W.2d 731, 733 (Tex.App. — El Paso 1992, no writ) (citing Baker v. Hansen, 679 S.W.2d 480 (Tex.1984) (per curiam)). I recognize that Cass states precisely the rule adopted by the majority. However, in my view, Cass was wrongly decided on this point. Certainly Baker does not stand for this proposition, since it involved an attempted appeal from a judgment that was not final because there had been no severance.
In this case, the trial court severed the sanctions claims from Stroud’s remaining causes of action and thereby rendered the interlocutory summary judgments final, ap-pealable judgments. If the severance were improper, it would be trial court error. But that is all it would be. Error in granting the severance does not divest this court of jurisdiction over Stroud’s appeal. Pierce v. Reynolds, 160 Tex. 198, 329 S.W.2d 76, 78-79 (1959); Schieffer v. Patterson, 433 S.W.2d 418, 419 (Tex.1968) (per curiam); Rutherford v. Whataburger, Inc. 601 S.W.2d 441, 443 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Accordingly, if the severance constitutes reversible error, we should reverse and remand, not dismiss for want of jurisdiction.1
WAIVER
“In order to preserve a complaint for appellate review, a party must have presented to the trial court a timely request, objection or motion, stating the specific grounds for the ruling he desired the court to make....” Tex.R.App.P. 52(a). In addition, the complaining party must bring forward a record sufficient to show reversible error. Tex. R.App.P. 50(d). Since an improper severance neither divests this court of jurisdiction nor constitutes fundamental error, Stroud was required to preserve his right to complain of the severance by bringing forward a record showing a specific objection, which the trial court overruled. Cf. Pierce, 329 S.W.2d at 78 (rule against splitting cause of action “is for *662the benefit of and may be waived by the defendant”); Rutherford, 601 S.W.2d at 443 (noting that, because appellant did not attack propriety of severance on appeal, court would not address that question).
The record before us does not reveal that Stroud objected to the severance on any ground.2 Nonetheless, Stroud asserts in his brief that the severance was granted over his objections, and the appellees have not disputed this assertion in their briefs. We therefore have discretion to accept Stroud’s assertion as true. Tex.R.App.P. 74(f). I would decline to do so. It was Stroud’s burden to bring forward a record showing reversible error, and he failed to even request such a record as to the severance. Supra n. 2. I would not employ Stroud’s unverified assertion of an objection to establish a vital preservation fact any more than I would employ the appellees’ verified assertion to establish the fact of dismissal. Supra n. 1. In my view, to employ Rule 74(f) in these circumstances would lead inexorably to vitiating the requirement that it is the appellant’s burden to bring forward a record showing reversible error. I would hold that Stroud waived the error, if any, in granting the severance.
SEVERANCE
Rule 41 provides that “[ajny claim against a party may be severed and proceeded with separately.” Tex.R.Civ.P. 41. Interpreting this provision, the supreme court has held that “[severance is proper ... only where the suit involves two or more separate and distinct causes of action,” each of which “must be such that the same might properly be tried and determined as if it were the only claim in controversy.” Kansas Univ. Endowment Ass’n v. King, 162 Tex. 699, 350 S.W.2d 11, 19 (1961). Additionally, the severed claim must not be “so interwoven with the remaining action that they involve the same facts and issues.” Guaranty Fed. Sav. Bank v. Horseshoe Operating Co., 793 S.W.2d 652, 658 (Tex.1990).
The majority bases its opinion upon its holding that the sanctions claims are compulsory counterclaims and, therefore, not sever-able. In some cases, however, even a compulsory counterclaim may be severable. See McGuire v. Commercial Union Ins. Co. of N.Y., 431 S.W.2d 347, 351 (Tex.1968) (severance of counterclaim proper, regardless of whether compulsory or not). Therefore, the issue before us is not whether a sanctions claim is a compulsory counterclaim, but whether the trial court erred in severing the sanctions claims from the summary judgments.
A trial court has broad discretion in severance matters, and its rulings will not be disturbed unless the complaining party demonstrates an abuse of discretion. Guaranty Fed. Sav. Bank, 793 S.W.2d at 658. One court of appeals has held that the trial court does not abuse its discretion if there is “any authority” that supports the trial judge’s decision. Varme v. Gordon, 881 S.W.2d 877, 882 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, no writ). Under this formulation of the abuse of discretion standard, the trial judge in this case clearly did not err. See McAllister v. Samuels, 857 S.W.2d 768, 779 (Tex.App.— Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no writ) (severance of claims for attorney’s fees under Rule 13 and the Declaratory Judgment Act “not unreasonable”). Even under the more traditional statement of the standard of review, however, a trial court does not abuse its discretion unless it acts arbitrarily, unreasonably, and without reference to guiding rules and principles. Aluminum Co. of America v. Bullock, 870 S.W.2d 2, 3 (Tex.1994).
The majority holds that the trial court abused its discretion — acted arbitrarily, unreasonably, and without reference to guiding rules and principles — because the severed Rule 13 claims “are completely interwoven with the remaining causes of action because *663they involve the same facts and issues.” On this point, I disagree. Limitations was the only common ground upon which the trial judge granted summary judgment to all of the defendants. Accordingly, at the trial court level and now on appeal, the only material facts and legal issues involved in Stroud’s causes of action are when they accrued, when he filed suit, and whether his claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. The sanctions claims, on the other hand, involve an examination of “the facts available to [Stroud] and the circumstances existing at the time of filing.” Home Owners Funding Corp. v. Scheppler, 815 S.W.2d 884, 889 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1991, no writ).
The facts material to the sanctions claims may or may not involve the limitations facts and legal issues. But even if the limitations facts and legal issues are subsumed in the facts and legal issues material to the sanctions claims, it appears to me that the trial judge might reasonably have believed that she would be in a much better position to rule on the sanctions claims once this court lays out the law relevant to the appellees’ limitations defenses and rules on the propriety of the summary judgments.
In short, in my view, the facts involved in the sanctions claims and Stroud’s causes of action are not so interwoven as to deprive the court of discretion to sever them. The facts of this case are thus entirely distinguishable from those involved in Cass, in which the trial court split a single sanctions order into two cases. See Cass, 823 S.W.2d at 734 (severing award of almost $1.3 million in attorney’s fees, as well as default judgments on defendants’ counterclaims, from remainder of death penalty sanctions, which included default judgments on remaining claims).
For these reasons, I would overrule Stroud’s first point of error and proceed to his remaining points.

. The appellees have sought leave to file a verified letter brief, which argues, among other things, that the judgment is now final, regardless of the propriety of the severance, because they have dismissed the severed sanctions claims. The majority has denied this motion on the ground that the dismissal of the severed sanctions claims is not in the record on appeal. I agree that the dismissal of the severed sanctions claims is not in the record on appeal because the appellees have not sought or been granted leave to file a supplemental transcript containing the dismissal order. I disagree, however, that this requires that we deny the motion for leave to file the letter brief, which addresses several matters raised by the litigants and this court during oral argument and unrelated to the severed sanctions claims. Since the dismissal order is not in the record on appeal, we may simply ignore this aspect of the letter brief.

. Before submission of this case, this court ruled that it was required to deny Stroud’s request for an extension of time in which to file the statement of facts, because Stroud failed to reasonably explain his failure to timely request its preparation. The record before us thus consists only of the transcript. The transcript does not establish that Stroud objected to the severance on any ground in the trial court. Moreover, even had Stroud been permitted to filed his requested statement of facts, it would not reflect reversible error, because Stroud's request did not include the hearing on the motion for severance.