Court Opinion

ID: 9755226
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:30:51.454738+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:05.410381
License: Public Domain

DAVID GAULTNEY,
Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The trial judge signed two post-answer default “final” judgments on the same day in the same case against Dickerson: one was apparently based on a directed verdict, the other on a jury verdict. The judgment based on the jury verdict contains the jury’s findings. That judgment reflects the jury found $87,000 in exemplary damages against Dickerson but no actual damages. Yet the judgment ordered the plaintiffs to recover from Dickerson (and the other defendants) $668,300 in actual damages and $387,000 in exemplary damages. The other judgment-against Dickerson alone-ordered that plaintiffs recover $668,300 from him.
Also in the mandamus record are two documents labeled “Final Judgment Nunc Pro Tunc,” both dated January 3, 2002. Like the first two judgments, one is a directed-verdict judgment and the other a jury-verdict judgment. The damage allocations are the same as in the first judgments. Each judgment recites that Dickerson filed an answer but did not appear at trial. In October 2006, the trial court signed a judgment nunc pro tunc order that apparently was in conformity with the jury’s findings. The court then withdrew that order, seemingly in part because of a bankruptcy stay. The trial judge subse*302quently signed another nunc pro tunc order, and then also set that one aside.
The two “final” 2002 judgments against Dickerson of the same date in the same case apparently remain in place, although the directed-verdict (findings-of-fact) judgment does not dispose of all of the parties. “Only one final judgment shall be rendered in any cause except where it is otherwise specifically provided by law.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 301. If there is no final order or judgment, the trial court retains authority to modify, correct, or reform the judgment. See Fruehauf Corp. v. Carrillo, 848 S.W.2d 83, 84 (Tex.1993) (“A trial court has plenary power over its judgment until it becomes final.”); see Crown Constr. Co. v. Huddleston, 961 S.W.2d 552, 559-60 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1997, no pet.) (Trial court had power to correct, modify, reform, or vacate judgment as long as it retained plenary power.). The parties and the majority assume the judgment reciting the jury verdict and disposing of all parties is the final judgment. In my view, the conflicts in and between the two documents indicate no “final” judgment has yet been signed. See Dispensa v. Univ. State Bank, 951 S.W.2d 797, 801 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1997, pet. denied) (“A judgment that lacks certainty and that is not sufficiently definite in the relief it grants is not a final judgment”). We should instruct the trial court to sign one final judgment.
Even if the judgment on the jury verdict is a final judgment, a court has inherent power to correct clerical errors in its judgment. See Knox v. Long, 152 Tex. 291, 257 S.W.2d 289, 291-93 (1953), overruled on other grounds by Jackson v. Hernandez, 155 Tex. 249, 285 S.W.2d 184, 191 (1955)). The distinction between clerical and judicial errors often is not clear, but I believe the ultimate question is whether a mistake occurred in translating the trial judge’s true decision into writing. See Andrews v. Koch, 702 S.W.2d 584, 585-86 (Tex.1986) (“[I]n this case, the probate court was merely correcting the signed judgment which inaccurately reflected the true decision reached.”). In Koch, the Court explained that when it is proven that a judgment does not reflect the court’s true decision, the court may correct the written judgment to conform to the prior judicial determination. Id. at 586. One author has explained the case-law in this way:
A review of the cases reveals a great disparity between theory and practice, because the rules seem to assume that mistakes are inherently either judicial errors in rendition or clerical errors in entry, and that the court’s task is simply to classify them correctly. In reality, the courts seem to consider not only the nature of the alleged error but also the character and persuasiveness of the proof that a mistake really occurred in translating the judge’s intentions into writing.
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The cases are difficult to harmonize, but most of them can be explained by this rule: If clear and convincing evidence proves that the court’s true intent was incorrectly translated into writing, the error is clerical and may be corrected nunc pro tunc.
David Peeples, Trial Court Jurisdiction and Control Over Judgments, 17 St. Maey’s L.J. 367, 385, 389 (1986).
The judgment here awards damages the judgment itself reflects the jury did not find. Plaintiffs trial attorney acknowledged the error, and the parties agreed in 2006 to a nunc pro tunc order correcting the mistake. Although the court later set aside that order, the trial judge apparently agreed with the parties then that his true intention was not correctly translated into the January 3, 2002, writing. The law *303allows a correction under these circumstances.
The trial court has the power to make its records reflect its true ruling. We should issue the writ of mandamus and instruct the trial court to sign one final judgment correcting the error to reflect the jury verdict.