Court Opinion

ID: 9661795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:50:26.15514+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:33.250461
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION ON REHEARING
EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.
I withdraw my dissenting opinion dated August 28, 2008 and substitute this opinion in its stead. I continue respectfully to dissent. I would hold that the judgment signed by the trial court on August 22, 2006 was a judgment nunc pro tunc that corrected a clerical error in the final agreed order enforcing arrearages against Appellant George Hernandez rendered by the associate judge on January 21, 2004 and entered by the referring trial court on January 28, 2004. Therefore, I would affirm the judgment nunc pro tunc in favor of appellees Maria Guadalupe Lopez (Hernandez) and the Office of the Attorney General of Texas (OAG).
George appeals from a nunc pro tunc judgment signed by the trial court on August 22, 2006. The nunc pro tunc judgment corrected the date on which George was found to be in arrearage on child support payments to December 31, 2003 from the date of December 31, 2004 recited in the court’s January 28, 2004 judgment.. That January 28, 2004 judgment entered as the judgment of the referring court an “Agreed Order Enforcing Child Support Obligation” (“Agreed Order”) that had been rendered and signed by the associate judge of the court on January 21, 2004, pursuant to former section 201.007(a)(14)(A) of the Family Code. See Act of May 21, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 476, § 1, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 1742 (current version at Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 201.007(a)(14)(A) (Vernon 2008)) (conferring power on associate judges of family courts to render final agreed orders except as limited by orders of referral).1
*189In the January 21, 2004 hearing, the associate judge heard evidence of the terms of the parties’ Agreed Order and transcribed them in the written “Agreed Order.” Appellant and appellees Maria and the OAG then initialed the transcribed Agreed Order and the associate judge signed it. The Agreed Order stated, in relevant part, “The Court FINDS and CONFIRMS that George Everardo Hernandez is in arrears in the amount of $51,000.00 as of December 31st, 2004” — a date then eleven months in the future— including “all unpaid child support and any balance owed on previously confirmed ar-rearages or retroactive support judgments as of the specified date.” (Bold emphasis added.). The final Agreed Order rendered judgment against George in the amount of $51,000 on the basis of that finding and stated that “[t]he judgment for this amount is a cumulative judgment.” The Agreed Order also contained findings that George failed to pay court-ordered child support on four specific dates in 2003. The referring court signed and entered the final Agreed Order as the judgment of the court on January 28, 2004.
The OAG subsequently moved for judgment nunc pro tunc, contending that the Agreed Order did not reflect the agreement of the parties but contained a clerical error, namely the finding that George was cumulatively in arrears as of December 2004, rather than December 2003. At the nunc pro tunc hearing, the OAG presented evidence in the form of Maria’s testimony that the associate judge heard the terms of the “Agreed Order” in open court and that the date of December 31, 2004 was incorrectly transcribed by the associate judge in the written Agreed Order:
Q. Did you approach the judge with the Attorney General and your ex?
A. I believe so, yes, sir.
Q. Okay. And did you-all recite your agreement into the record?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And was it agreed upon and stipulated on the record that the arrears as of December 31, 2003 were $51,000?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was there any testimony on the record — Was there any testimony that the agreement was 2004?
A. No, sir.
George did not present contrary evidence.
At the close of the nunc pro tunc hearing, the trial court granted the OAG’s motion for judgment nunc pro tunc, ordered that the confirmation date of the arrearage be changed from December 31, 2004 to December 31, 2003, and wrote that finding into the August 22, 2006 nunc pro tunc judgment. With respect to the January 28, 2004 judgment, the court commented, “I think it is permissible for the court to assume that the underlying court would not enter a judgment it had no authority to enter.” I construe the court’s comment as its determination that it had no authority to enter a judgment on January 28, 2004 that did not accurately reflect the terms of the final Agreed Order rendered by the associate judge on January 21, 2004 and that the error was, therefore, a clerical mistake in the entry of the judgment and not a judicial error in the judgment rendered.
The purpose of a judgment nunc pro tunc is to correct a clerical error in a judgment after the court’s plenary power *190has expired. Jenkins v. Jenkins, 16 S.W.3d 473, 482 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2000, no pet.); see also Hawk v. E.K. Arledge, Inc., No. 05-01-01144-CV, 2002 WL 1225917, at *2 (Tex.App.-Dallas June 6, 2002, pet. denied) (mem.op.) (purpose of judgment nunc pro tunc is to make written record of judgment accurately reflect trial court’s decision and relief ordered). Thus, the nunc pro tunc rule provides that “clerical mistakes in the record of any judgment may be corrected by the judge in open court according to the truth or justice of the case after notice of the motion therefor has been given to the parties interested in such judgment.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 316. A trial court has plenary power to correct by judgment nunc pro tunc a clerical error made in entering a final judgment, but it cannot correct a judicial error made in rendering final judgment. Escobar v. Escobar, 711 S.W.2d 230, 231 (Tex.1986); Jenkins, 16 S.W.3d at 482.
“Rendition is the judicial act by which the court settles and declares the decision of the law upon the matters at issue.” Comet Aluminum Co. v. Dibrell, 450 S.W.2d 56, 58 (Tex.1970) (quoting Coleman v. Zapp, 105 Tex. 491, 151 S.W. 1040, 1041 (Tex.1912)). An agreed judgment — or, in this case, a final order- — -is rendered “whenever the trial judge officially announces his decision in open court ... in his official capacity for his official guidance whether orally or by written memorandum the sentence of law pronounced by him in any cause.” Samples Exterminators v. Samples, 640 S.W.2d 873, 875 (Tex.1982) (quoting Comet Aluminum, 450 S.W.2d at 59, and holding that, after parties had voiced their approval of settlement dictated in open court, “the trial court rendered judgment by ordering them to sign and follow the agreement”); see also Patel v. Eagle Pass Pediatric Health Clinic, Inc., 985 S.W.2d 249, 252 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1999, no pet.); accord Noorian v. McCandless, 37 S.W.3d 170, 173-74 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, writ denied) (agreeing with Samples, but finding that settlement agreement was incomplete and was neither read into record nor admitted as exhibit).
A clerical mistake is, by contrast, “a mistake or omission in the final written judgment that prevents it from accurately reflecting the judgment actually rendered.” Hawk, 2002 WL 1225917, at *2. Thus, to support a judgment nunc pro tunc, the judgment entered must differ from the judgment actually rendered, so that the judgment nunc pro tunc serves only to ensure that the judgment rendered is actually entered of record. Id.; see also America’s Favorite Chicken Co. v. Galvan, 897 S.W.2d 874, 879 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1995, writ denied); Ex parte Hogan, 916 S.W.2d 82, 85 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, no writ) (trial court had jurisdiction to correct obvious typographical errors in dates of missed child support payments in contempt order nunc pro tunc to make written judgment speak truth of judgment that judge actually rendered verbally in court).
Whether an error in the judgment is clerical or judicial is a question of law. Escobar v. Escobar, 711 S.W.2d 230, 232 (Tex.1986). However, whether a court pronounced judgment orally and what the terms of the pronouncement were are matters of fact. Id. “The judicial or clerical question becomes a question of law only after the trial court factually determines whether it previously rendered judgment and the judgment’s contents.” Id. An appellate court may review the trial court’s factual determinations regarding its rendition of judgment for legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence. Id.
Under former section 201.007(a)(14)(A) of the Family Code, an associate family *191judge was given the authority to render a final agreed order. See Act of May 21, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 476, § 1, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 1742 (current version at Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 201.007(a)(14)(A) (Vernon 2008)). Here, the associate judge exercised that authority by hearing the terms of the agreement in open court, transcribing them, and ordering the parties to sign and follow the agreement whose terms they had recited — an agreement enforcing against George the arrear-ages in his child support payments accumulated as of December 31, 2003. See Act of May 21, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 476, § 1, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 1742 (current version at Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 201.007(a)(1), (2), (14)(A) (Vernon 2008)). However, the associate judge mistakenly transcribed the arrearages as of December 31, 2004, a date then 12 months in the future. The Agreed Order was then transmitted to the referring court for entry as the judgment of the court. See former section 201.007(c) (providing, “An agreed order ... rendered and signed by an associate judge under Subsection (a) constitutes an order of the referring court.”). Thus the trial court’s entry of the final Agreed Order as its judgment on January 28, 2004 was not the rendition of judgment, but the purely ministerial act of entry of judgment. See Serna v. Webster, 908 S.W.2d 487, 490 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1995, no pet.) (signing of formal order or judgment is essential to trigger appropriate appellate timetable, but is otherwise merely ministerial, mechanical act); see also Tex.R. Civ. P. 306 (providing for entry of judgment to determine beginning of periods prescribed by rules).
The purpose of the trial court’s August 22, 2006 hearing on appellees’ Rule 316 motion for judgment nunc pro tunc was to determine whether the judgment entered on January 28, 2004 accurately reflected the terms of the final Agreed Order recited to the associate judge at the January 21, 2004 hearing. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 316. The trial court heard testimony at the nunc pro tunc hearing that, under the terms of the Agreed Order as recited to the associate judge in open court, George was in arrears in the amount of $51,000.00 as of December 31, 2003, not, as incorrectly transcribed in the associate judge’s handwritten findings, 2004. This testimony was not disputed.
I would hold that the evidence at the nunc pro tunc hearing was legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s implied factual determination that the confirmation date of arrearage recorded in its January 28, 2004 judgment did not accurately reflect the terms of the final Agreed Order recited to the associate judge in open court on January 21, 2004, that the confirmation date of arrearage was incorrectly transcribed by the associate judge, and that George was actually in arrears in the amount of $51,000 as of December 31, 2003, as the record shows-not December 31, 2004.
Because there is probative evidence to support the trial court’s determination that the judgment of the referring court entered on January 28, 2004 did not accurately reflect the final Agreed Order rendered by the associate judge on January 21, 2004, I would hold that the sentence of law pronounced was that to which the parties testified at the nunc pro tunc hearing, namely that George was in arrears in the amount of $51,000 as of December 31, 2003, and that he should pay arrearages from that time — and not from December 31, 2004, a date testified to by no one, contrary to the testimony, the evidence, and logic, and appearing only in the incorrect handwritten transcription of the parties’ final Agreed Order by the associate judge, which was subsequently entered by the referring court as the judgment of the *192court. Thus, I would hold that the trial court did not err in correcting the arrear-age confirmation date in its August 22, 2006 judgment nunc pro tunc, and I would, therefore, affirm the August 22, 2006 nunc pro tunc judgment. See Escobar, 711 S.W.2d at 232 (affirming judgment nunc pro tunc when, at hearing on motion for judgment nunc pro tunc, district court heard evidence of partial judgment orally-rendered by different presiding judge in complex proceedings that differed from written judgment entered on all claims in case four years later and court heard evidence of contents of oral partial judgment, and some record evidence supported trial court’s decision to correct judgment).
The majority, however, holds that rendition of judgment occurred on January 28, 2004, when the trial court adopted the associate judge’s final report, consisting of the final Agreed Order. Because all errors in the rendition of judgment are substantive judicial errors, not clerical errors, the majority holds that the trial court erred in correcting the arrearage confirmation date in the January 28, 2004 judgment nunc pro tunc, and it vacates the nunc pro tunc judgment signed on August 22, 2006.
The majority relies for support on Galvan, 897 S.W.2d 874, Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas v. County of Dallas Tax Collector, 228 S.W.3d 475, 479 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2007, no pet.), In re Fuselier, 56 S.W.3d 265, 268 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, orig. proceeding), and Stein v. Stein, 868 S.W.2d 902 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1994). None of the cases cited by the majority, however, support its holding.
The majority relies most heavily upon Galvan, which is distinguishable from the case at hand. In Galvan, the plaintiff requested that the trial court grant her motion for non-suit “with prejudice,” and, after the trial court had entered the judgment and dismissed the suit, she requested correction of the judgment “nunc pro tunc” to reflect dismissal “without prejudice,” claiming the request for a non-suit “with prejudice” was a clerical error made by her counsel’s legal assistant. 897 S.W.2d at 876. There is no question, however, that a judicial ruling dismissing a suit “with prejudice” in response to the prayer of a party is a declaration of the law upon the matters at issue. See Comet Aluminum Co., 450 S.W.2d at 58 (defining rendition of judgment). Therefore, I disagree that Galvan is applicable to this case, in which the error corrected was not a judicial ruling but a transcription mistake.
Likewise, in Roman Catholic Diocese, an agreed judgment was submitted to the trial court pursuant to a compromise and settlement. 228 S.W.3d at 479. The terms were set forth in the agreed judgment. Id. That judgment imposed ad valorem tax liability on the Diocese for the years 1989 through 1991. Id. at 478-79. Approximately nine months later, the parties submitted an agreed “nunc pro tunc” judgment to the trial court that imposed an additional two years of tax liability on the Diocese, and the trial court approved it. Id. at 479. The appellate court voided the “nunc pro tunc” judgment, stating, “A substantive change in a judgment results from the correction of a judicial error, not a clerical one.” Id. The court explained, “Because the trial court approved the settlement by signing the agreed judgment, the judge’s act of signing the judgment constituted his rendition of the judgment” and “any error that may have been made in the drafting of the judgment became part of the judgment the court rendered at the time the judgment was signed.” Id. In sum, the original mistake was the parties’ own drafting mistake, and, by accepting their statement of the substantive terms of *193the agreed judgment, the trial court rendered judgment. It could not then go back at the parties’ request and, by signing a judgment “nunc pro tunc,” change a mistake in the declaration of the substantive law into a clerical mistake.
In In re Fuselier, as in Galvan, the court signed an order dismissing a non-suited case “with prejudice.” 56 S.W.3d at 266. The order was signed as “approved” by counsel for the movant. Id. at 267. When the same plaintiff subsequently filed a second suit on the same issue, her new counsel discovered the dismissal with prejudice and sought entry of an order nunc pro tunc changing the dismissal to one with without prejudice on the ground that the original order was mistakenly submitted by the plaintiffs former attorney. Id. The trial court signed the order, but the appeals court vacated it on the ground that the original order correctly reflected the judgment actually rendered. Id. at 267-68. Again, the mistake that was sought to be corrected by judgment “nunc pro tunc” was a mistake in the declaration of the substantive law, not a clerical mistake.
Former section 201.007(a)(14)(A) of the Family Code plainly states both that an associate judge has the authority to hold an evidentiary hearing on the terms of an agreed order and to render a final agreed order in accordance with those terms and that any such order that is “rendered and signed by an associate judge under Subsection (a) constitutes an order of the referring court.” See Act of May 21, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 476, § 1, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 1742, 1742-43 (current version at Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 201.007(a)(14)(A) (Vernon 2008)). Not only does the majority’s holding nullify the statute, but it also leads to the absurd result that a final agreed order is not rendered by the associate judge who heard its terms recited in open court by the parties, transcribed them, and signed the final order, but is rendered by the referring court that did not hear or transcribe the terms but merely entered the final order as its own judgment.
The essential problem with the majority’s holding that “rendition” of a final Agreed Order heard, transcribed, and signed by an associate family judge occurs when the referring court enters the final order as the judgment of the court is that, with this holding, clerical errors in the transcription of the terms of an agreed final order recited to an associate family judge under the authority conferred by former section 201.007(a)(14)(A) are automatically transformed into substantive judicial errors. Hence, the intent of section 201.007(a)(14)(A), that associate judges of the family court be empowered to render final agreed orders, except as limited by orders of referral, is nullified, and there can never be a nunc pro tunc correction of a final agreed order rendered by an associate family judge pursuant to section 201.007(a)(14)(A), no matter how absurd or obvious a mistake is made in transcribing the terms of the agreement. I believe that the court’s holding is inconsistent both with the plain language and purpose of section 201.007(a)(14)(A) and with the purpose of the nunc pro tunc rule, as well as with Comet Aluminum and Samples, which approve the correction of clerical errors in a judgment nunc pro tunc. See Samples, 640 S.W.2d at 875; Comet Aluminum, 450 S.W.2d at 58-59.
I would overrule appellant’s sole issue.
Conclusion
I would affirm the trial court’s judgment nunc pro tunc.
Justice KEYES, dissenting.

. Former section 201.007(a)(14)(A), effective September 1, 2003, provided in relevant part:
(a) Except as limited by an order of referral, an associate judge may:
(1) conduct a hearing;
(2) hear evidence;
(3) compel production of relevant evidence;
(4) rule on the admissibility of evidence;
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(8) make findings of fact on evidence;
(9) formulate conclusions of law;
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(14) render and sign:
(A) a final order agreed to in writing as to both form and substance by all parties .
*189(c) An agreed order ... rendered and signed by an associate judge under Subsection (a) constitutes an order of the referring court.
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Act of May 21, 2003, 78th Leg., R.S., ch. 476, § 1, 2003 Tex. Gen. Laws 1742 (current version at Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 201.007(a)(14)(A) (Vernon 2008)).