Court Opinion

ID: 9771107
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:32:33.202317+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:38:02.528597
License: Public Domain

BLEIL, Justice
dissenting.
At the crux of my divergence from the majority’s view is my belief that the trial court did not err in any evidentiary ruling. The majority carefully recites rules regarding appellate review of Texas Employment Commission proceedings and regarding evi-dentiary rules concerning what evidence is or is not admissible. Its error is not in the recitation of the rules in the abstract, but rather is in its application of the rules to the facts of this case.
There should be no legal issue on this appeal about what type of evidence is admissible and what is not. The question is: Did the trial court err? To answer this, we must look at what was offered and what was objected to.

Evidence Offered

The Texas Employment Commission offered into evidence before the trial court the record made before the Commission. After discussing what exactly was being offered into evidence, the attorney for the Commission said, “Your Honor, at this time I would like to offer the record.” At that time, Mary Lee Foundation’s attorney objected.

The Objection

Mary Lee Foundation’s “objection” is vague and, rather than risk misconstruing the attorney’s words, it is quoted, as follows:
Your Honor, we object. This is trial de novo. All of the evidence must be properly verified in the courtroom today. The only thing that you can base your decision on is whether or not the evidence that you hear in this courtroom today supports the record. That record is irrelevant, and we must object to it, and think we are entitled to have it excluded. They have to bring the evidence to the courtroom today.
After the document was marked and offered as Defendant’s Exhibit One, it was again offered into evidence.
At that time, the attorney said, “Objection.” The trial court said, “Okay. You want to state your objection, sir.” Whereupon the objecting attorney continued:
Your Honor, number 1, we sent — there is an identity of the two defendants here. This is the first case that I have ever handled where the AG’s office does not represent Ms. DeGraffenried. Instead they prepared an answer for her to file pro se
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I asked to gain knowledge of what they intended to produce. I sent interrogatories to Ms. DeGraffenried saying what— typical interrogatories. What witnesses support your case, what experts do you intend to produce, et cetera. They said they had no experts to produce in Ms. DeGraffenried’s replys (sic) to interrogatories. They have not up dated those interrogatories and they have not shown good cause. Number two. The second portion of the objection is that this is a trial de novo, which means they must produce the evidence in Court for you today to support the finding of the Texas *730Employment Commission. This is our one chance to cross examine any doctors they intend to produce rather than having, as the TEC did, an exparte communication of a doctor we have never spoken to, who we have never had a chance to say, did she tell you that her husband wanted her to resign. To give him the input that he would need to make a finding of whether or not her quitting was stress related, related to her family or related to her job. We have never had the opportunity to even speak to this doctor, and when we asked them what experts do you use, she has written none. So I think the trial de novo, you are not entitled — I mean the Court is not entitled to rely on evidence, especially when its (sic) contains exparte hearsay statements, being a letter from a doctor who we have never had the opportunity to cross examine. I think this proceeding, and I have handled several of these cases, and never before have they tried to introduce the record before the employment commission. This is the first time they have even tried to do that. We are entitled to try our case here and see if you hear enough evidence to support the decision that they did back then.

The Ruling

After some comments by the Commission's attorney, the court announced its ruling:
Okay. This is what I’m going to do. The objection at this time to defendant’s exhibit number 1 is overruled. If you want to — you have got several books pulled out there. After the hearing I probably won’t give you a decision here today because I don’t hear a whole bunch of these, and I want to satisfy myself on the burden that must be met in one of these. If you want to refer me, after the hearing, to any one of these cases concerning hearsay within one of these public documents or records that are to be held, I will be glad to consider it and consider these records for whatever they may be worth. So the objection is overruled.

Issue: Did the Trial Court Err?

The majority says that indeed “no magic language is required when objecting to evidence.” Agreed. But, a specific objection is required and was not made. Even before considering this appeal, it is necessary for this Court to ascertain the nature of the objection before we can determine whether any ruling on it was error. Tex.R.Civ.Evid. 103(a)(1) provides that:
In case the ruling is one admitting evidence, a timely objection or motion to strike appears of record, stating the specific ground of objection, if the specific ground was not apparent from the context. When the court hears objections to offered evidence out of the presence of the jury and rules that such evidence be admitted, such objections shall be deemed to apply to such evidence when it is admitted before the jury without the necessity of repeating those objections.
At the outset, the trial court could have overruled the objection because it was general. Additionally, after asking that the Foundation’s attorney state the nature of the objection, the attorney said that the record was “not relevant.” It plainly was relevant, and the trial court properly overruled that objection.
Lastly, an examination must be made of what the majority determined was a valid enough objection so that the trial court’s ruling on it was error. The question is whether some portion of the record was hearsay. Of course it was. Reading what the Foundation’s attorney said, it appears that the “hearsay objection” was only to the letter from DeGraffenried’s doctor verifying the medical reasons she left her job.
Even if it were error to consider the doctor’s letter, and the trial court had erred in overruling an objection to that letter, the remainder of the evidence, properly admitted, supports the trial court’s judgment that the Commission’s decision is supported by substantial evidence. DeGraffenried’s testimony, the telephone statement of the physician which was signed by the Commission’s representative, as well as the findings of fact and conclusions contained in *731the record itself, provide sufficient evidence to support the Commission’s decision.
I see no trial court error in ruling on any objection to the admission of evidence, or in finding substantial evidence to support the Commission’s decision. The majority, in effect, holds that the trial court erred in overruling objections that were never made. Because I would affirm the trial court’s judgment, I dissent.