Court Opinion

ID: 9761151
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:32:53.439128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:20.413399
License: Public Domain

ONION, Presiding Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Article 36.19, V.A.C.C.P., provides:
“Whenever it appears by the record in any criminal action that any requirement of Articles 36.14, 36.15, 36.16, 36.17 and 36.18 has been disregarded, the judgment shall not be reversed unless the error appearing from the record was calculated to injure the rights of defendant, or unless it appears from the record that the defendant has not had a fair and impartial trial. All objections to the charge and to the refusal of special charges shall be made at the time of the trial.”
Here is a statute dealing with the violation of certain enumerated statutes concerning the court’s charge, and which concludes with a requirement that all “objections to the charge” be made at the time of the trial. Yet the majority by its own reading of statutory and decisional law, by removing commas in earlier opinions and reinterpreting them, and by selected excerpts from other cases, concludes “that Article 36.19 actually separately contains the standards for both fundamental error and ordinary reversible error.”
The majority would have the phrase “calculated to injure the rights of the defend*175ant” apply as the only test for reversible error if there has been a timely objection to the charge, and if there has been “some” harm. It would also lift the phrase “that the defendant has not had a fair and impartial trial” out of the statute and use it as the test for fundamental error, an independent basis for reversal where the error, though not timely objected to, is, if you please, so “egregiously” harmful as to deprive the defendant of a fair and impartial trial.
The majority, which admits that the phrase “unless it appears from the record that the defendant has not had a fair and impartial trial” is of uncertain origin, nevertheless concludes it was “meant to be a statutory enactment of the fundamental error doctrine and is of independent significance ... within Article 36.19.”
In other words the Legislature, constitutionally or not, has adopted a fundamental error doctrine to be imposed upon the judiciary of this state without defining it by simply burying the phrase in question into the middle of the statute in question. With this I cannot agree.
The majority commences its discussion by acknowledging at least three prior theories as to the test imposed by language in Article 36.19 as to “calculated to injure” and “fair and impartial trial.” The majority then adds:
“It is critical that we acknowledge from the outset the simple fact that no conceivable theory can reconcile the cases written on the subject over the last 130 years. Imprecise language, both statutory and decisional, has destroyed any hope of harmonizing all authoritative statements in any literal sense.

“In studying art. 743 and Article 36.19 to determine which, if any, theory is correct, it is clear that one cannot answer that question from the current statute itself. The statute is inherently ambiguous; it can be read dozens of times without revealing with certainty what the Legislature intended.”
With this background the majority felt like it was free to interpret the statute in any way it pleased, including the announcement that long ago the Legislature had adopted a fundamental doctrine of independent significance in 1913 which was not clearly discovered until today by the wisdom of the majority.
In explanation, the majority does state:
“Our exegesis1 of the statute, suggested legislative history of art. 743, is at least as defensible as any other reading of the statute in light of the research, a minuscule portion of which is set out above, does more than the others to respect the meanings which the statutes and caselaw had attached to key phrases in the provision.”
There can be no question that over the years there have been numerous interpretations, not always consistent, of Article 36.19 and its forerunner. And it is true that support can be found for any number of different theories. When we reach the point where we begin to talk of “reversible beneficial (to the defendant) error,” Brewer v. State, 572 S.W.2d 940, 941-944 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) (dissenting opinion), and “harmless fundamental error,” it is time to take stock and see where we are.
After study and reexamination of many of the authorities and the legislative history of Article 36.19 and its forerunners, it is my opinion that the statute relates to the situations where Articles 36.14 and 36.15, etc., are disregarded. Thus, where a timely objection or special requested charge has been made, and overruled, the “calculated to injure” or “fair and impartial trial” tests are to be applied to determine whether the error, if any, calls for reversal. Both tests apply to what the majority chooses to call “ordinary reversible error.” Despite timely objection, one error in failing to follow the enumerated statutes on the giving of the court’s charge may be well calculated, may be well intended to injure the rights of *176the defendant, while another error, timely objected to, may be due to haste, ignorance of the law, mistake, negligence, omission, oversight, etc., without there being any scheme, any calculation, design or intent to injure the defendant. Nevertheless, this later error may result in depriving the defendant of a fair and impartial trial to which he is entitled. This latter test is a much broader test designed to cover a wider range of situations than that encompassed by the first test.
I find no support for any claim that the Legislature has ever adopted a fundamental error doctrine or a test that must be applied by the judiciary, the third branch of government, to a claim of fundamental error-in the court’s charge or indictment, etc. I simply cannot buy the majority’s theory that the second test in Article 36.19 was intended to be the sole test to be applied if the courts -were passing upon a claimed fundamental error in the court’s charge. In 1913, when then Article 743 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was enacted, the fundamental error doctrine had been espoused in several appellate opinions. Bishop v. State, 43 Tex. 390 (Tex.1875); Tuller v. State, 8 Tex.App. 501 (Crt. of Appeals 1880); Stewart v. State, 50 S.W. 459 (Tex.Cr.App.1899); Leache v. State, 22 Tex.App. 279, 3 S.W. 539 (Crt. of Appeals 1886); Ford v. State, 41 Tex.Cr.R. 1, 51 S.W. 935 (1899); Jones v. State, 53 Tex.Cr.R. 131, 110 S.W. 741 (1908). It was not this source of a few reversals that the Legislature sought to curb. The 33rd Legislature in 1913 was concerned with the large number of criminal convictions reversed because of what today’s majority refers to as “ordinary reversible error” in the court’s charges due to then existing procedural rules. The Legislature sought to require timely objections, etc., to the charge at the time of trial to prevent the trial judge from being sand-bagged by post trial complaint and thus reversed on appeal. If the Legislature had thought it proper to address by legislation the question of what we now refer to as fundamental error in the charge, they could have easily and expressly said so. They did not. The same was true when Article 666 was enacted as part of the 1925 Code of Criminal Procedure and when Article 36.19 was enacted as part of the 1965 Code of Criminal Procedure.
There is no statutory test for determining fundamental error. That is a matter for the courts. Constitutionally the Legislature cannot tell the courts how to decide a case.
A timely objection to a charge, etc., preserves the claimed error, “the judgment shall not be reversed unless the error appearing from the record was calculated to injure the rights of the defendant, or unless it appears from the record that the defendant has not had a fair trial and impartial trial.” If the claimed error has not been preserved by timely objection, etc., no reversal follows even if it is error in fact unless, of course, it is fundamental error. Naturally, then, every claimed error not properly preserved is asserted to be fundamental error. Not every claimed fundamental error, however, is actual fundamental error.
A fundamental error is a very basis, an underlying material error that affects the foundation of a conviction’s validity.2 It may well be a violation of fundamental fairness, a violation of due process of law, a violation of the due course of the law of the land (Article I, § 19, Texas Constitution).
Early on, before the language was incorporated in any statute, the Supreme Court of Texas in Bishop v. State, 43 Tex. 390 (1875), stated a “material deficiency in the charge, not objected to below, but apparent on the record” was deemed to be “an error calculated to injure the rights of the defendant.” Other opinions have used the *177“fair and impartial trial” language in discussing fundamental error. There has been no consistency. As the majority notes, other opinions have used the phrase “calculated to injure the rights of the appellant to the extent that he has not had a fair and impartial trial.” See, e.g., Ross v. State, 487 S.W.2d 744, 745 (Tex.Cr.App.1972). This seemingly is a combining of the two statutory tests in Article 36.19 to some extent and supportive of the first theory discussed by the majority that Article 36.19 applies only to fundamental error and sets no standard for “ordinary reversible error.” See Dowden v. State, 537 S.W.2d 5, 6, n. 1 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). This, I conclude after further study, is an erroneous concept.
In determining whether there is fundamental error there will naturally be a consideration of whether the claimed error was calculated to injure the rights of the accused or whether he was deprived of a fair and impartial trial, but it must be a material error affecting the very foundation of the conviction’s validity. The error must have resulted in actual harm, remarkable or extraordinary in some bad way, of a glaring or flagrant nature. Fundamental error must meet this higher test for harm, a more stringent test than for “ordinary reversible error.” Reversals for fundamental error in the charge should be granted only in the most compelling cases.
I fully agree with the majority that if there is a claimed fundamental or “ordinary reversible” error in the charge we must look to the charge as a whole, the evidence, the argument of counsel, the record in its entirety to determine if the jury was misled and if in fact there is reversible error. This approach is not new. Mace v. State, 9 Tex.App. 110 (Ct. of Appeals 1880); Robinson v. State, 39 S.W. 107 (Tex.Cr.App.1897); Simnacher v. State, 43 S.W. 512 (Tex.Cr.App.1897).
In the recent past there has been an increase in the number of the so-called fundamental error per se reversals where the claimed error has been determined to be fundamental error without a discussion of any real harm in the particular case. The “new” approach should change this somewhat, but it should be borne in mind that even if the “new” approach had been utilized in the past cases the same result would have been easily reached in some cases. And in the future there will be cases where the error is so flagrant there will still be a fundamental error reversal per se. Many of the reversals have been directly related to the abandonment in part by this Court of the rule of reading the court’s charge as a whole in construing the same, see e.g. Doyle v. State, 631 S.W.2d 732 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). And this resulted in large measure from the recent acceptance and use by the majority of this Court of the phrase “application paragraph of the charge” as if one and only one paragraph of the charge applies the law to the facts. This has never been true. In fact, the whole written charge is given for the purpose of “distinctly setting forth the law applicable to the case;” Article 36.14, V.A. C.C.P. By finding a single defect in the exalted “application paragraph” the majority would reverse without consideration of the charge as a whole, or considering whether the jury was in any way misled.
Most importantly, the issues concerning the charges in many cases should not have ever reached the appellate courts. Too frequently the “error” was due to mistake, oversight, and plain sloppiness in the preparation of the charge. It appears that trial judges are allowing court reporters and others to draft the charges, and attempts are made to follow pattern jury instruction forms and old charges without striking inapplicable portions or trying to tailor the form to the allegations of the indictment in the case. There are often few or no objections to these charges, and trial judges are apparently reading the charge to the jury without observing the obvious mistakes therein.3
*178Trial judges should personally develop some expertise in the drafting of charges, and supervise the preparation of the same. It should never be assumed that because there is no objection to the charge that it will necessarily pass muster. And when the trial judge reads the charge to the jury, it should not be the first time he has read the charge.
Today’s majority reaches out and very selectively chooses certain cases, some not involving charges, and declares they produced bizarre results, and then lectures the court about common sense and the fair administration of justice. If the writer of the majority opinion is concerned about bizarre results and common sense I would suggest he has overlooked cases as Antunez v. State, 647 S.W.2d 649 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Braudrick v. State, 572 S.W.2d 709 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Cobarrubio v. State, 675 S.W.2d 749 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Camera v. State, 663 S.W.2d 1 (Tex.Cr.App.1984).
In concluding its opinion, the majority simply overrules the leading case of Cumbie v. State, 578 S.W.2d 732 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), to the extent it holds any error in the court’s charge requires “automatic” error. There is no further explanation of the Cumbie opinion or many cases following it. Cumbie set forth four kinds of types of fundamental error in the court’s charge which had called for reversal in the past. With the limited surgery performed on Cumbie and its progeny, will we be left with four kinds of fundamental error that may be in light of the record “harmless fundamental error”? I would have hoped the majority would go far enough to spare us a doctrine of “harmless fundamental error.”
And instead of applying the newly announced rule regarding fundamental error to the instant case which has long pended before this Court, the majority remands the cause to the Ft. Worth Court of Appeals for that court to attempt to apply the new rule. That court followed our previous teachings and now they must apply a new rule of which it was unaware until today. There is no judicial economy in this move. From this day forward the various Courts of Appeals will be applying the new rule in other cases without any example of how this Court has applied its own rule. Is the purpose to run the new rule up the flag pole to see how many salutes it receives before proceeding to utilize it ourselves?
While I agree with the new rule, I dissent to remanding this cause to the Ft. Worth Court of Appeals for first application of the rule.
For the reasons stated, I concur in part and dissent in part to the results reached.

. Explanation or critical interpretation of text.

. In Bellah v. State, 415 S.W.2d 418, 421 (Tex.Cr. App.1967), the Court stated:
"In the absence of a proper objection it is only in those cases where the erroneous charge goes to the basis of the case and is contrary to and fails to state the law under which the accused is prosecuted that objections to the charge are considered on appeal as fundamental error. Garza v. State, 162 Tex.Cr.R. 655, 288 S.W.2d 785.”

. In Jackson v. State, 578 S.W.2d 748, 749 (Tex. Cr.App.1979), it was stated:
"Many cases such as this have recently come before this court. It is difficult to un*178derstand why so many courts are submitting charges to juries which allow the juries to convict defendants for offenses not alleged in the indictment_”