Court Opinion

ID: 9775220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:50:32.487668+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:23.635544
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
POWERS, Justice.
Appellees’ motion for rehearing raises several contentions, all of which are adequately answered above. One point deserves separate comment. Appellees’ motion complains that this Court erred in basing its decision upon matters not shown of record: that the matter of prejudgment interest was not raised during the trial below but afterwards in the drafting of a final judgment, that the record discloses no evidence showing what a reasonable rate to use in compounding interest would be and the time periods for doing so; and, that the City of Austin was guilty of no wrongdoing so as to justify the imposition of compound interest, as opposed to simple interest, a narrow exception to the general rule against compound interest as damages.
The record contains no statement of facts. The trial was before a jury and judgment in the cause is based upon their verdict. The final judgment sets forth verbatim the verdict of the jury, consisting of their answers to three special issues, each of which inquires of the jury as to the fair market value of one of the three parcels of land taken by the City. No special issue was directed at any matter relating to interest as “damages” or at any act of wrongdoing by the City. We are, of eourse, required to assume that the issues submitted by the trial court and found by the jury have support in the pleading and evidence. On the other hand, we must also assume that no other issues, even if raised by the pleadings, were sustained by the evidence. Moreover, where the court does not submit an issue to the jury and none is requested on the subject, we must presume that the evidence does not authorize the issue, and the same presumption obtains where, as here, there is no statement of facts in the record. See 5 Tex.Jur.3d Appellate Review, § 624 (1981).
Having withdrawn the amount found by the commisrioners, appellees assumed the burden of proving the damages occasioned by the taking of their property. We find no pleading by appellees and no special issue relative to compound interest, no rejected special issue request in that regard, and no complaint by appellees that the verdict is incomplete. Appellees’ contention on motion for rehearing ignores the vital proposition that it was their burden to obtain a jury finding to support their claim *679for compound interest as “damages.” Accordingly, the presumptions mentioned in the foregoing paragraph militate against their position on rehearing and not in favor of it.
More importantly, the briefs filed in this Court make it quite clear that the sole issue for decision on appeal was the correctness of the trial judge’s award of compound interest after the jury was dismissed, based upon his own evaluation of the circumstances and the law and not upon any jury finding in that regard. The City’s original brief asserted that there existed no contract between the parties requiring compound interest; that there was “no issue in the case at bar” as to the rates to be used in calculating interest; rather, that the dispute “centers on the method of applying ... the arithmetic ” for computing interest. Appel-lees did not contradict these assertions, but argued their case in that context. We were entitled to assume these assertions to be true and did so. Tex.R.Civ.P. 419. In fact, appellees’ brief states that the only issue before this Court “is whether prejudgment interest ... should be compounded as the Trial Judge allowed in this case.” Appel-lees’ brief states affirmatively that there existed no contract between the parties providing for compound interest. More dramatically, appellees’ brief states that “(t)he Trial Judge saw the equitable considerations clearly and made the appropriate decision on these facts,” and not upon the verdict of the jury. This is the very procedure condemned in our opinion above.
Reformed, and as Reformed, Affirmed on Motion For Rehearing.