Court Opinion

ID: 9770321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:58:29.39969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:16.459058
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
After we delivered our earlier opinion, appellant filed a motion for rehearing, which we held pending the trial judge’s report of his findings at the evidentiary hearing pursuant to our direction in that opinion. The report of the judge was subsequently filed, and appellees moved to dismiss the appeal. Appellant has also filed a motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus requiring the judge to order the court reporter to prepare and transmit to this court a complete transcript of the evidence at that hearing and also a complete statement of facts of the trial on the merits. On May 6, 1981, we overruled appellant’s motion for rehearing and also his motion for leave to file a petition for mandamus, and we sustained appellees’ motion to dismiss the appeal. We now state our reasons for these rulings.
We consider first appellant’s motion for rehearing of our order directing the trial court to hear evidence concerning whether appellant gave proper notice to appellees of their affidavit of inability to file a bond or secure the costs of the appeal. Appellant argues that since the clerk filed a contest, the clerk must be considered the “opposing party” within rule 355(b), so that no further notice to appellees or their counsel was required. Appellant contends further that by failing to file their own contest, appellees adopted the clerk’s contest as their own, and since no ruling was made on the contest within ten days after its filing, the contents of the affidavit must be taken as true.
We cannot agree. The “opposing party,” as specified in the rule is the appellee, the *639party opposing the appeal. That party, as well as any interested officer of the court, has the right to contest the affidavit. Without notice of the filing of the affidavit, as required by the rule, the appellee has no opportunity to file his own contest and obtain a hearing within the proper time. He may adopt the clerk’s contest as his own if he has timely notice, and he may obtain a hearing on it, but he does not adopt it merely by failing to file his own contest. We hold, therefore, that appellees could not be deprived of their right to contest the affidavit by failure of the court to rule on the clerk’s contest within the proper time. Therefore, the motion for rehearing is overruled.
ON MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE PETITION FOR MANDAMUS
The findings of the judge as stated in his report are subject to our review in the light of the evidence taken at the hearing on April 28, 1981, but no transcript of the evidence at that hearing is before us. Instead, appellant has filed a motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus directing the trial judge to order the court reporter to prepare and transmit such a transcript. We deny leave to file this petition because it fails to show grounds for such extraordinary relief.
Mandamus will not issue to compel a public official to perform an official act unless relator’s right to have the act performed is clear. Cobra Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sadler, 447 S.W.2d 887, 895 (Tex. 1968); City of Ingleside v. Johnson, 537 S.W.2d 145, 150 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1976, no writ). There are three requisites for a writ of mandamus: a legal duty to perform a nondiscretionary act, a demand for performance, and a refusal. Stoner v. Massey, 586 S.W.2d 843, 846 (Tex. 1979).
The petition alleges that appellant had demanded of the judge that a statement of facts of the hearing be prepared by the court reporter and sent to this court, but that the judge had refused to provide such a statement of facts. This demand is insufficient because it is the duty of the official reporter rather than the judge to prepare the statement of facts. See Groves v. Gould, 102 S.W.2d 1114, 1116 (Tex.Civ. App.—Fort Worth 1936, no writ); Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 2324 (Vernon Supp. 1981); cf. Stoner v. Massey, 586 S.W.2d 843, 846 (Tex. 1979) (duty to file motion for rehearing in Court of Civil Appeals is duty of clerk rather than the court). Accordingly, before a writ of mandamus will be issued to require the reporter to prepare a statement of facts, the relator must show that a demand was made of the reporter and that he has refused. Stark v. Dodd, 76 S.W.2d 865, 869 (Tex.Civ.App. — Beaumont 1934, no writ); cf. Callaghan v. Salliway, 5 Tex.Civ.App. 239, 23 S.W. 837, 839 (1893, no writ) (mandamus will not lie to compel county judge to issue a warrant without demand and refusal by county clerk for certified copy of order allowing claim). Here no demand upon and refusal by the reporter is alleged.
Moreover, the petition does not allege that appellant tendered to the reporter the proper fee for preparation of such a statement of facts or, alternatively, that appellant was unable to make such a tender. Although the hearing concerned the relator’s ability to pay costs, the relator has the duty to present to the court a duly authenticated statement of facts of the hearing on that issue. Shipp v. McClannahan, 85 S.W.2d 255, 256 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1935, no writ). Even if appellant’s affidavit of inability to pay or secure the costs of the appeal is taken as true under rule 355(e), it does not follow that appellant is unable to pay for the cost of transcribing the evidence at the hearing, which may be much less than the cost of a complete transcription of the evidence at the trial. For these reasons appellant’s motion for leave to file the petition for writ of mandamus is denied.
ON MOTION TO DISMISS APPEAL
Since no record of the evidence at the hearing on April 28, 1981, is before us, our determination of the jurisdiction of this court must be made from the trial judge’s *640findings. See Goffney v. Lowry, 554 S.W.2d 157, 158-59 (Tex. 1977). The judge’s report filed in this court shows that after hearing evidence, the court found (1) that appellant did not mail a notice of the filing of his affidavit to appellees or their counsel within two days after filing the affidavit; (2) that the court heard no evidence from any witness that such notice was sent by either registered or certified mail, appellant himself testifying that he did not use either registered mail or certified mail; (3) that no notice of the filing of the affidavit was ever received by the ap-pellees or their counsel as a result of any means of delivery; and (4) that appellee Rose Renfroe discovered for the first time on March 5, 1981, the eighth day after filing, while looking at the district clerk’s records in the ease, that appellant had filed the affidavit, and on the same day she communicated that discovery to her attorney, that being the first time such filing had been brought to his attention.
We conclude from these findings that appellant did not comply with the notice requirement of rule 355(b), and, therefore, is not entitled to prosecute this appeal without paying or securing the costs. In view of the judge’s findings that appellant mailed no notice to appellees or their counsel within two days after filing of the affidavit and that no notice of the filing of the affidavit was received as a result of any means of delivery from appellant or his counsel, we need not decide whether the notice was ineffective because not given by certified or registered mail under rules 21a and 21b. Neither do we need to determine whether actual filing of a contest by the appellees within the ten days prescribed by rule 355(c) would have waived the notice.
For the reasons stated, appellant’s motion for rehearing is overruled, his motion for leave to file a petition for writ of mandamus is denied, and appellees’ motion to dismiss the appeal is sustained insofar as appellant asserts perfection of the appeal by filing his affidavit of inability to pay or secure costs on February 25, 1981. This dismissal is without prejudice to another appeal which appellant has perfected after our ruling of May 6, 1981.