Court Opinion

ID: 9771123
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:33:11.788413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:25.583856
License: Public Domain

KOEHLER, Justice,
concurring.
I concur with the foregoing opinion and the results with respect to all of Appellant’s points of error except the reasoning with reference to Point of Error No. Three, a point asserting no evidence to support the award of attorney’s fees. The record is totally devoid of any evidence regarding attorney’s fees or the reasonableness or necessity of such fees. The findings of fact do not mention attorney’s fees. In such cases, an award of attorney’s fees cannot stand and must be reversed. Smith v. Smith, 757 S.W.2d 422 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1988, writ denied). As a general rule in a case where a no evidence point has been sustained and the Appellant has requested that judgment be rendered, the judgment should be reversed and rendered, unless the evidence has not been fully developed and in the interest of justice a remand would be proper. Williams v. Safety Casualty Co., 129 Tex. 184, 102 S.W.2d 178 (Tex.1937). An appellate court should not remand a case just to give an appellee another bite of the apple. A record with no evidence to support an award of attorney’s fees cannot be metamorphosed into a record with some evidence merely by this Court taking judicial notice that the preparation and trial of any lawsuit requires time and effort and therefore attorney’s fees.
However, since this is a DTPA case, a different rule must apply simply because Tex.Bus. & Com.Code Ann. § 17.50(d) (Vernon 1987) mandates attorney’s fees:
(d) Each consumer who prevails shall be awarded court costs and reasonable and necessary attorneys’ fees. [Emphasis added].
Under these circumstances, the proper action is to remand the case to the trial court for a determination of reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees based upon evidence even though there was no evidence to support an award in the first trial. Smith at 426; Hennessey v. Skinner, 698 S.W.2d 382, 386 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1985, no writ); First National Bank of Irving v. Shockley, 663 S.W.2d 685, 691 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1983, no writ).