Court Opinion

ID: 9770210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:54:30.636989+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:15.785053
License: Public Domain

SEERDEN, Justice,
concurring.
While I agree with the result reached by the majority in this case, I find it necessary to write separately to clarify my reasoning.
I agree in rejecting the contentions of appellant that in order to recover attorney’s fees, the services must benefit the client and that the only way an attorney can establish that his fee is reasonable is to prove he was not careless. The majority, however, continues by stating that after Butler testified in the “Shell trial” that his fees were reasonable and necessary, Wor-ley had the burden to show that the fees were not reasonable and necessary.
The only relevance of Butler’s testimony in the “Shell trial” to these proceedings is that Butler attached the verified sworn testimony as part of his summary judgment evidence. Butler’s summary judgment evidence is sufficient to establish his right to summary judgment absent controverting evidence by Worley. While Worley filed a reply to appellee’s motion for summary judgment, he offered no controverting summary judgment evidence. His reply was not sworn to and he offered no affidavit evidence.
I question whether the doctrine that a non-moving party may not resort to his own answers to the moving party’s interrogatories as proof of the existence of a genuine issue of material fact, as announced in Walker v. Horine, 695 S.W.2d 572, 575 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1985, no writ), is applicable in this case. In Ho-rine and the cases cited therein, there was either no reply to the motion for summary judgment or the reply failed to mention or incorporate the answers to interrogatories. The first mention of such answers was on appeal. Here, appellant filed a response to the motion for summary judgment and quoted the interrogatory response. As pointed out above, the reply to the motion for summary judgment was not sworn to. In addition, the answers to interrogatories was not sworn to, either; consequently there simply was no summary judgment evidence contesting the reasonableness and necessity of the attorney’s fees. Accordingly I agree the summary judgment should be affirmed.