Court Opinion

ID: 9676707
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:30:52.120301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:50.434215
License: Public Domain

GONZALEZ, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the judgment and opinion of the court, but would more fully address the argument the Petitioners raised for the first time in their amended application for writ of error. Petitioners complain that the trial court erred in granting default judgment against the representative of the estate because the decedent of the estate had previously filed an answer. I agree that the trial court committed error by granting the judgment, but it is not funda*394mental error which may be raised for the first time on appeal as the petitioners have attempted to do.
Sheldon L. Pollack filed both original and amended answers in the trial court before his death. Following his death, the plaintiff caused writs of scire facias to issue to the personal representatives of his estate. Neither representative filed an answer. The trial court rendered a default judgment against the estate based on the representatives’ failure to answer, and overruled their motion for new trial.
Rule 150 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure provides that the death of a party to a law suit does not abate those causes of action which survive, but such suit may proceed to judgment pursuant to the rules. Rule 152 requires that the estate’s legal representatives appear and defend the suit after being served with scire facias,1 The purpose of scire facias is not to start the litigation over from the beginning, but to substitute the legal representatives in the decedent’s place. Coven v. Dailey, 652 S.W.2d 527, 529 (Tex.App.—Austin 1988, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Estate of Gripon v. Bostick, 610 S.W.2d 541, 542 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1980, no writ); Clark v. Turner, 505 S.W.2d 941, 945 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo [7th Dist.] 1974, no writ). If the deceased’s legal representatives fail to file new pleadings, they are deemed to have adopted the pleadings filed by and on behalf of the deceased. Estate of Pewthers v. Holland Page Indus., Inc., 443 S.W.2d 392, 393 (Tex.Civ. App. — Austin 1969, writ ref. n.r.e.); Atkins v. Home, 470 S.W.2d 229, 232 (Tex.Civ. App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1971, no writ). Thus, the answer of the original defendant inures to the benefit of his legal representatives (the personal representatives of the estate) and prevents rendition of a valid default judgment for failure to file an answer. See Estate of Gripon, 610 S.W.2d at 542; Clark v. Turner, 505 S.W.2d at 945; Estate of Pewthers, 443 S.W.2d at 395.
The trial court erred in granting the default judgment. The original defendant’s answer was on file, and his legal representatives were entitled to rely on that answer without filing separate answers of their own. Since there was an answer on file, the trial court should not have rendered a default judgment against the estate. The representatives of the estate did not bring this matter to the attention of the trial court, however. The representatives’ argument, made for the first time in their amended application for writ of error, does not provide a basis for reversal on appeal unless it is fundamental error. Tex. R.App.P. 52(a).
In Estate of Gripon, 610 S.W.2d at 542-43, the court of appeals concluded that the trial court committed fundamental error in rendering default judgment against the representative of the estate when an answer was on file. That court relied on the conclusion of the court in Estate of Pewthers, to determine that such a judgment would be void. 443 S.W.2d at 395. The Pewthers court relied in turn on Freeman v. Freeman, 160 Tex. 148, 327 S.W.2d 428, 433, in which this Court held that, because of a conflict with the rules of procedure, the rendition of a default judgment when an answer was on file was fundamental error.2
Freeman was expressly overruled on this very point in Mapco, Inc. v. Forrest, 795 S.W.2d 700 (Tex.1990). Following Freeman, this Court has taken a more restrictive view of fundamental error:
Fundamental or unassigned error is a discredited doctrine. Fundamental error survives today only in those rare instances in which the record shows on its face that the court lacked jurisdiction or that the public interest is directly and ad*395versely affected as that interest is declared in the statutes and constitution of this state.
Cox v. Johnson, 638 S.W.2d 867, 868 (Tex.1982) (citations omitted).
Lack of jurisdiction is far and away the most common example of fundamental error. See, e.g., Mapco, Inc. v. Carter, 817 S.W.2d 686, 687 (Tex.1991) (judgment against entity never made a party); New York Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Sanchez, 799 S.W.2d 677, 679 (Tex.1990) (appellate court’s assumption of jurisdiction over interlocutory order); Grounds v. Tolar I.S.D., 707 S.W.2d 889, 893 (Tex.1986) (exclusive jurisdiction vested in another court). Defects in procedure will rarely constitute fundamental error, however, and therefore, will not constitute grounds for reversal when they are raised for the first time on appeal. See, e.g., Central Educ. Agency v. Burke, 711 S.W.2d 7, 9 (Tex.1986) (applicability of provision of APTRA to appeal of agency decision not fundamental error); Allison v. Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co., 703 S.W.2d 637, 638 (Tex.1986) (failure to join parties not fundamental error); Young v. Hodde, 682 S.W.2d 236, 237 (Tex.1984) (summary judgment granting relief not requested in motion).
The trial court had jurisdiction in this case. Because there was an answer on file, the trial court rendered what is in effect a post-answer default judgment. In their motion for new trial, the representatives of the estate should have complained that the rendition of judgment without notice denied them due process. See Lopez v. Lopez, 757 S.W.2d 721, 723 (Tex.1988) (post-answer default judgment without notice of hearing constitutes denial of due process). Nevertheless, even constitutional rights must be asserted on a timely basis. Curtis Pub. Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 143, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 1985, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967). By not raising the complaint about the trial court’s actions until their amended application for writ of error, the petitioners have not provided a basis for reversing the trial court’s judgment.

. The rule provides:
Where the defendant shall die, upon the suggestion of death being entered of record in open court, or upon petition of the plaintiff, the clerk shall issue a scire facias for the administrator or executor or heir requiring him to appear and defend the suit and upon the return of such service, the suit shall proceed against such administrator or executor or heir.
Tex.R.Civ.P. 152.

. The court relied on a conflict with Texas Rule of Procedure 330(b) (repealed 1976).