Court Opinion

ID: 9596946
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:54:25.488512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:43:40.560179
License: Public Domain

EDELMAN, Justice,
concurring.
I concur with the majority opinion except in its conclusion on the first point of error that appellant’s complaint was not preserved because appellant failed to assert a motion to strike. Simply put, appellant failed to preserve his appellate complaints based on extraneous offense and violation of the motion in limine because his objection at trial complained only of nonresponsiveness,1 which the majority opinion correctly concludes was not a valid ground of objection.
Most importantly, I disagree with the majority opinion that a party who inadvertently elicits unfavorable testimony to which no objection applies can nevertheless have that evidence stricken as inadmissible. In this regard, I first disagree with the majority that it is even theoretically possible for evidence to somehow be inadmissible, yet not be subject to any objection, but still be subject to a motion to strike.2 It is axiomatic that to whatever extent a ground exists for a motion to strike, that ground would apply equally to an objection. Conversely, if no objection exists, the evidence is neither inadmissible nor subject to a motion to strike.
In addition, a party introducing evidence at trial cannot complain on appeal that the evidence was erroneously admitted. See, e.g., Ohler v. United States, 529 U.S. 753, 120 S.Ct. 1851, 1853, 146 L.Ed.2d 826 (2000). In this case, once appellant’s question was posed without being qualified, objected to, or withdrawn, and a respon*677sive answer was given, appellant waived any complaint to that answer, even if it was unintended, unfavorable, or otherwise inadmissible. To avoid such a problem, appellant need only to have refrained from asking a question that was either overly broad or to which he did not know the answer. Having failed to do so, he cannot be heard to complain with a motion to strike or otherwise that the testimony he himself elicited was inadmissible.
In this regard, footnote 4 in the majority opinion states, in part, “the better practice is to prevent a party from predicating error as a result of his own inadvertence. To hold otherwise would encourage carelessness.” I completely disagree that it is the job of any court to prevent a party or his lawyer from making mistakes. For a court to do so would obviously remove it from any position of impartiality.
FOWLER, J. joins in this concurrence.

. See, e.g., Ibarra v. State, 11 S.W.3d 189, 196-97 (Tex.Crim.App.1999).

. Moreover, to the extent the majority opinion suggests that an objection can be insufficient to preserve error on the admission of evidence where the objection is overruled, i.e., because the error could only be preserved by a motion to strike, I also disagree. On the contrary, a motion to strike, request for instruction to disregard, or request for mistrial becomes necessary only after an objection has been sustained.