Court Opinion

ID: 9681377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:49:12.810445+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:33.671842
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
Appellee Hoke has filed his motion for rehearing complaining among other things, that this Court failed in its opinion to make any statement with regard to his motion to strike appellant’s brief because not filed in this Court within thirty days after the filing of the transcript and statement of facts as contemplated by Rule 414, T.R.C.P. It is the position of the appellee that this Court can only extend the time to file a brief upon motion filed showing good cause and that if there is no such motion the Court must refuse to file an untimely presented brief and strike any brief filed late. It is his further position that under Rule 415, T.R.C.P., and Rule 414, the appeal must then be dismissed.
We do not so construe the rules. The two must be construed together.
Rule 414, after providing that appellant shall file his brief within thirty days after the filing of the transcript in the Court of Civil Appeals and that appellee shall have twenty-five days thereafter in which to file his brief, provides as follows: “Upon good cause shown, the Court of Civil Appeals may grant either or both parties further time for filing their respective briefs, and may extend the time for submission of the case. * * * ”
Rule 415 reads as follows:
“When the appellant has failed to file his brief in the time prescribed, the appellate court may dismiss the appeal for want of prosecution, unless' good cause is shown for such failure and that appellee has not suffered material injury thereby. The courts mayr however, decline to dismiss the appeal,. whereupon it shall give such direction-to the cause as it may deem proper.” (emphasis here and elsewhere ours)
We are of the view, and hold, that the power of the Court of Civil Appeals to allow late filing of a brief is not limited to instances where good cause may be shown unless late filing would result in material injury to the opposite party. We hold the Court has power to allow late filing of briefs if the opposite party will not be injured even though no good cause is shown and although no formal motion is filed. When construed together these rules mean that Courts of Civil Appeals may allow late filings if no injury results to the opposite party and must do so if good cause is shown and no harm results to the opposite party. The italicized portion of Rule 415, above quoted, leads inescapably to this conclusion. Even if injury would result to the opposite party, we think the Court has the authority to allow late filing if injury can be removed by a resetting of the case or in some other manner.
Appellee has cited the following cases in support of his motion: Aldridge v. Clinton Park Development Co., 187 S.W.2d 255 (CCA), no writ hist.; Mayrath v. Mayrath, 335 S.W.2d 873 (CCA), no writ hist.; Sneed v. Moore, 330 S.W.2d 472 (CCA); no writ hist.; Black v. Aldrich, 339 S.W.2d 340 (CCA) no writ hist.
We have read all of the cases cited. We will not notice them separately. None of them has held a want of power in' the Court of Civil Appeals to allow late filing of a brief unless the party has shown good cause for delay. Each of them was an instance in which the Court in the exercise of its judicial discretion refused to allow late filing and dismissed the appeal because the Court was of the view that under the facts *744there present no good cause for failure to timely file was shown and presumptively, under the facts there appearing, the opposite party would be harmed.
Now to the facts here involved, insofar as filing of appellant’s and appellees’ briefs are concerned. Appellant did not file his brief until December 27, 1963. The record was completed in this Court by the filing of the statement of facts on July 12, 1963. The case was, on November 7, 1963, set for submission for February 6, 1964, and the attorneys for appellant and appellees were notified of such setting by letters of that date. After appellant filed his brief on December 27, 1963, appellee, on January 21, 1964, filed his reply brief and his motion to strike appellant’s brief and to dismiss the appeal. In the motion appellee recited the facts with regard to the late filing and stated the delay “has resulted in injury to appellees.” Nothing but this conclusion concerning injury was stated. He does not complain that he had inadequate time to file a reply brief. He was given the full 25 days following the filing of appellant’s brief as provided for in Rule 414 in which to file his brief. Fie does not complain this was inadequate. He did not ask for any additional time to file his brief.
The real purpose of Rule 414, in our view, is to create a situation where when a case in the ordinary course of events is reached for submission it will be ready for submission in its order on the docket and there will be no delay in submission because of failure to file briefs.
The tremendous volume of litigation in this Court is such that it is impossible, after a record is filed in this Court, to obtain a setting within a time so as to make compliance with Rule 414 necessary. The result is that this Court has a well known practice of long standing that the appellant may, without motion, file his brief provided it is filed as much as 40 days prior to the date on which the case is to be submitted, and that appellee may without motion file his brief at any time prior to 15 days before submission. If either wishes further delay a motion must be filed. This rule of practice has been known to appel-lee’s counsel since November 11, 1963. Ap-pellee filed a thorough and excellent brief. We find he has been in no way prejudiced by the late filing of appellant’s brief.
Appellee’s motion to strike appellant’s brief and dismiss the appeal is denied.
On the merits of the appeal, appellee complains that we were in error in reversing the case because of the court’s charge. He particularly urges that since the innocent accident of July 14 was not pled, appellant was not entitled to an affirmative submission that the jury could consider its having aggravated, if it did, the injuries of July 6. He urges that when the court said the jury could not consider a condition or disability which may have occurred after July 6 which was not proximately caused by the collision in question, this correctly stated the law.
As we pointed out in our original opinion, this, as an abstract proposition of law, is correct, but when the paragraph immediately preceding which dealt specifically with aggravation of previously existing injuries is considered, we think the jury could and would reasonably conclude that aggravation by the subsequent injury could not be considered. The court, it is true, had previously defined proximate cause using the standard definition which of course says nothing with regard to aggravation. It is also correct, as appellee urges, that where a matter such as aggravation is not specifically pled, a party relying on it is not entitled to an affirmative submission. Flowever, where the court, without any objection from the opposing party (here ap-pellee) assumes to submit it affirmatively, there must be a correct submission, upon objection from the other party sufficiently pointing out in his objection the incorrect manner of submission.
In support of our holding that aggravation caused by subsequent innocent occur*745rence of July 14 could be considered if the jury considered such was an aggravation and was foreseeable, even though not pled, we cited the cases of Galveston, H. & S. A. R. Co. v. Coker, 135 S.W. 179, and Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Brown, 40 S.W. 608. We did not mean that in the absence of pleading appellant would be entitled to affirmative submission, but only that he could recover the damages for aggravation as a proximate cause of the collision of July 6 even though aggravation was not specifically pled. Appellee urges that we were incorrect in stating there was in those cases no pleading of the previously existing injuries. We have carefully reread those cases and are of the view our construction was correct. In Galveston, H. & S. A. R. Co. v. Coker, the court had specifically instructed the jury authorizing a recovery for aggravation of previous injuries. The objection was that there was no pleading of aggravation. The court stated: “Plaintiff’s contention was that he had not been injured prior to the time of the wreck, and that all injuries from which he was suffering at the time of the trial were caused on account of the wreck.” The court then stated that the petition stated: “ * * * he received serious, painful, and permanent injuries. Said injuries consisting of the wounding, contusing, and mashing and cutting of his abdomen, and the walls, linings, and partitions thereof, and the tearing and bruising of the entrails and the protrusion thereof.”
In spite of plaintiff’s contention that all injuries were received in the wreck, the evidence showed he had a hernia which had existed some time before the wreck but it was made larger or aggravated, not caused, by the ivreck. In fact he denied he had the hernia before the wreck. Other evidence showed it was previously existing. The court did say, as stated by appellee, that “the charge of the court * * * was clearly authorized by both pleadings and evidence.” However, we are of the view that the court meant that though it was not specifically pled, damages for aggravation were recoverable if the proximate result of the wreck.
In the Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Brown case, there was very much the same situation. There the plaintiff was contending prior to his injury he was in good health and that all his troubles were due to injuries received in the wreck. The court said it was proper to charge on aggravation despite plaintiff’s claim of previous good health because other evidence raised the issue of previously existing conditions that were aggravated. It is true, as stated by appellee, that at one point in the opinion the court stated it was right to call the attention of the jury to the items “alleged and proved” for which compensation would be allowed. However, the court was clearly referring, in our opinion, to matters other than aggravation.
Appellee’s motion for rehearing is overruled.