Court Opinion

ID: 9830088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:51:47.61191+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:11:58.998673
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellee’s motion for a rehearing raises no questions that have not already been properly disposed of in the original opinion but it does request supplemental findings of fact. After a careful consideration of the entire record, the briefs, our original opinion in connection with the said motion and request, we believe findings on the subject matter requested have heretofore been made in our original opinion.
Appellee has requested a supplemental finding to the effect that the jury agreed upon the word “No” as an answer to special issue No. 9, and approved the act of the foreman in writing such word as their answer to the said special issue. A finding to that effect was made in our original opinion in the language of the foreman of the jury, Germany, given as a witness before the court on the hearing for a motion for a new trial as follows: “The jury was in agreement that the answer to be given to special issue No. 9 was the word ‘No.’ ” We likewise stated that the other jurors who testified at the hearing corroborated the testimony of the foreman.
But the other jurors corroborated the foreman, Germany, also in his testimony to the effect that he put down “No” as an answer to special issue No. 9 because it was his opinion that such answer “reflected the finding of the jury that he (appellant) did not have a hernia prior to the 13th day of July, 1943.” The act of the jury in writing down the word “No” to special issue No. 9 after they had found that appellant did not have a hernia prior to the 13th day of July, 1943, when, in fact, the word “No” had the opposite effect to their finding, constitutes the "unanimous mistake in the nature of a clerical error in announcing or transcribing a verdict already arrived at” (quotation from case of Caylat v. Houston, E. & W. T. R. Co., supra [113 Tex. 131, 252 S.W. 482]), for which the Supreme Court says relief should be granted.
Appellee further requests a “finding that any error of the jury was in its misunderstanding of the isuse submitted to it by the court.” We think findings on this subject matter have already been made in our original opinion; however, it may be more clearly stated here. A careful analysis of the evidence reveals that the jury cautiously and deliberately answered all the special issues without any haste, confusion or uncertainty; that they clearly understood that the trial court asked them in special issue No. 9 whether or not appellant’s hernia existed in any degree before the accident on July 13, 1943; that they unanimously agreed without any confusion or dissension that he did not have a hernia in any degree before July 13, 1943, and they thought the word “No” would clearly report their finding to that effect to special issue No. 9, but they later learned soon after they were discharged that the word “No” had the opposite meaning and the jury therefore made “a unanimous mistake in the nature of a clerical error in announcing or transcribing a verdict already arrived at” (quotation from Caylat case), •for which the Supreme Court says relief should be granted. The negative form of the question propounded in special issue No. 9 misled the jury as to whether a negative or an affirmative answer would correctly announce the finding they had made, but a careful examination of all the testimony reveals that' they understood the nature and meaning of the question prepound-ed by the court and the facts as a whole do not justify a finding such as appellee seeks to have us make. Excerpts picked out from the testimony here and there of some of the jurors on cross-examination may have a tendency to lend some comfort to appellee’s contention that it was “an *798error in the mental processes by which the jurors arrived at the answer” to special issue No. 9, hut a careful analysis of all the testimony of each juror as a witness conclusively establishes a unanimous mistake by the jury in the nature of a clerical error only in transcribing and announcing its verdict already arrived at by the jury in answering the said special issue. The facts in the instant case are parallel to the facts in the 'Caylat case and the same rule should prevail; however, in the Caylat case only affidavits of the jurors in support of the claim of a unanimous mistake were introduced in evidence, while appellant produced all the jurors that could be found to testify before the trial court in the instant case, and each juror was carefully cross-examined. The testimony of the jurors support the findings made by us in the original opinion and here reiterated.
Appellee’s motion for a rehearing is overruled.