Court Opinion

ID: 9659576
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:49:48.3375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:09.561508
License: Public Domain

Concurring opinion
by SARAH B. DUNCAN, Justice.
In his second issue, Reyes argues “the trial court erred by setting a supercedeas [sic] bond without taking evidence and without a record of the hearing.” The majority does not address the merits of either aspect of Reyes’s issue, holding instead that, “to preserve the error” in “the court reporter’s failure to transcribe the proceedings” of the supersedeas bond hearing, Reyes was required to “object[] [to] the court reporter’s failure to make a record.”1 This holding, however, not only fails to dispose of Reyes’s first complaint, it fails to consider Rule 13.1(a)’s history in addressing his second complaint. However, since Reyes’s second issue can (and should) be disposed of without doing violence to the mandatory nature of the court reporter’s duty, I concur in the court’s judgment.
When the trial court renders a judgment for the recovery of real property, the amount of “security must be at least ... the value of the property interest’s rent or revenue.” Tex.R.App. P. 24.2(a)(2)(A). *741Therefore, to determine the proper amount of security, the trial court must hear evidence of “the value of the property interest’s rent or revenue.” Cf. Culbertson v. Brodsky, 775 S.W.2d 451, 455 (Tex.App.Fort Worth 1989, writ dism’d w.o.j.) (“remand[ing] to the trial court with instructions that the trial court shall conduct a hearing and consider evidence relating to the sufficiency of the supersedeas bond, including the present value of the consideration required of Brodsky by the contract and the value of the rent and/or hire of the property”). The trial court thus erred in setting the amount of security without conducting an evidentiary hearing. However, since Reyes does not argue this error harmed him in any way, I would hold the error is harmless. See Tex.R.App. P. 44.1; see Nabelek, — S.W.3d at -, 2005 WL 2148999, at *6 (holding absence of record harmless when hearing was not evidentiary and appellant failed to argue harm). And, since it is undisputed that the trial court did not hold an evidentiary hearing on Reyes’s motion to set superse-deas, a reporter’s record of the hearing was not required. Cf. Michiana Easy Livin’ Country, Inc. v. Holten, 168 S.W.3d 777, 782 (Tex.2005) (holding in the pretrial context that “a reporter’s record is required only if evidence is introduced in open court; for nonevidentiary hearings, it is superfluous”). The majority holds, however, that Reyes waived his complaint that the court reporter failed to make a record of the hearing by failing to object. In my view, this holding is wrong in light of Rule 13.1(a)’s history.
Before the 1997 amendments to the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 13.1’s predecessor provided as follows:
(a) The duties of official court reporters shall be performed under supervision of the presiding judge of the court and shall include, but not be limited to:
(1) attending all sessions of court and making a full record of the evidence when requested by the judge or any party to a case ....
Tex.R.App. P. 11(a)(1), 49 Tex. B.J. 561 (Tex. Sup.Ct. and Tex.Crim.App.1986, amended 1997) (emphasis added). With the 1997 amendments, however, the Supreme Court of Texas made the court reporter’s duty to make a full record of the proceedings mandatory “unless excused by agreement of the parties.” Tex.R.App. P. 13.1(a), 60 Tex. B.J. 886 (Tex. Sup.Ct. and Tex.Crim.App.1997, amended 2002) (“The official court reporter or recorder must ... attend court sessions and make a full record of the proceedings unless excused by agreement of the parties.”) (emphasis added); see, e.g., In re Bell, 91 S.W.3d 784, 791-92 (Tex.2002) (noting that “must” is usually mandatory language). The mandatory nature of the court reporter’s duty was continued when the court again amended the current version of Rule 13.1(a) in 2002. See Tex.R.App. P. 13.1(a). However, the 2002 amendment followed substantial discussion of whether the duty should be mandatory or only upon request. See Hearing of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, 5398-5425 (Jan. 25, 2002).
The Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure initially recommended that the rule be modified to make the duty operative only upon request. Id. 5398-99. However, the Supreme Court of Texas responded that it was “not inclined to change the Rule substantively.” Id. In the discussion that followed, it was pointed out that most trial court proceedings are not recorded, id. at 5403-04; section 52.046 of the Texas Government Code made the court reporter’s duty operative only upon request, id. at 5405; as a result of the conflict between section 52.046 and Rule 13.1(a), the First Court of Appeals had held that the Texas *742Court of Criminal Appeals exceeded its rulemaking authority by enacting the rule, id. at 54062; and to require the court reporter to attend a hearing, even for the brief period of time it would take to record that the making of a record was “excused by agreement,” would delay the preparation of appellate records. Id. at 5418.
On the other side of the discussion, the supreme court’s liaison expressed the court’s concern, and the reason for the 1997 amendment, as follows:
[W]e did talk about the concern that has been expressed by some lawyers particularly when they get out of county and they request a court reporter and they think the court reporter is coming in the room, ... because that’s what automatically happens ... in their home county. And about halfway through the hearing they look around, and nobody is taking the record, and they find that you have to ask twice in this particular county or you have to ask nicely or there [is] some additional requirement.... The problem was that the Court discussed, and a number of the members are gone now that were there, but the concern that a lawyer would be expecting that he had jumped through the hoops only to look around and find that it wasn’t good enough. That was the concern.
Id. at 5410-11. At the conclusion of the discussion, the committee voted seventeen to three to recommend that the court reporter be required to make a record only “upon request.” Id. at 5422. But when the amended rules issued, the court exercised its prerogative to stay its course: “The official court reporter or court recorder must ... unless excused by agreement of the parties, attend court sessions and make a full record of the proceedings.” Tex.R.App. P. 13.1(a). In short, the Supreme Court of Texas has repeatedly rejected the concept of the court reporter being required to make a record only “upon request” and has instead opted for a mandatory duty “unless excused by agreement of the parties.” This well-considered judgment should be respected by this Court.

. See Valle v. State, 109 S.W.3d 500, 508-09 (Tex.Crim.App.2003) (holding that an objection is required to preserve error in court reporter’s failure to record bench conference and disapproving of holding in Tanguma v. State, 47 S.W.3d 663 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 2001, pet. ref’d), that "rule dispenses with the requirement of an objection to preserve error”); Meredith v. Ellis, No. 11-04-00300-CV, 2005 WL 2572429, at *1 (Tex.App.-East-land Oct. 13, 2005, no. pet. h.) (mem.op.) (holding that appellant failed to preserve error in court reporter’s failure to make record of trial by failing to object); Nabelek v. State., No. 14-03-00965-CV,- S.W.3d -, -, 2005 WL 2148999, at * 5 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] Sept. 8, 2005, no pet. h.) (holding that appellant failed to preserve error in court reporter’s failure to make record of hearing by failing to object).

. See Polasek v. State, 16 S.W.3d 82, 89-90 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2000, pet. ref'd) (holding Rule 13.1(a) “void”); but see Nabelek, — S.W.3d at -, 2005 WL 2148999, at *8 (Frost, J., concurring) (listing courts of appeals that have declined to follow Polasek and stating that "the Court of Criminal Appeals has since applied Rule 13.1(a) [in Valle ], implicitly affirming the validity of the rule”).