Court Opinion

ID: 9768673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 13:43:14.702121+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:43.021113
License: Public Domain

SAM D. JOHNSON, Justice
(dissenting).
This dissent is respectfully submitted. The majority opinion raises a simple ques*883tion. What purpose is served by denying Airway’s appeal when this court, the court of civil appeals, and the opposing party obviously understand the grounds of the appeal? Unfortunately, this question is left unanswered by the majority opinion.
The beginning point for analyzing the problem presented by the instant case is Rule 422, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides:
“The purpose of briefs being to acquaint the court with the points relied upon, the manner in which they arose, together with such argument of facts and law as will enable the court to decide the same, a substantial compliance with these rules will suffice in the interest of justice; but for a flagrant violation of the rules the court may require the case to be re-briefed.”
This court has long held that in applying our liberal briefing rules courts should look to the statement and argument under a point of error in determining the adequacy of such point. In Fambrough v. Wagley, 140 Tex. 577, 169 S.W.2d 478, 482 (1943), this court stated:
“Our present briefing rules were adopted for the purpose of simplifying the briefing of cases so that greater attention will be devoted to the presentation of the merits of the appeal, and less attention given to the mechanics of the brief. . If a ‘point’ is sufficient to direct the Court’s attention to the matter complained of, the Court will look to the ‘point’ and the statement and argument thereunder to determine the question of reversible error. Simply stated, the Court will pass on both the sufficiency and the merits of the ‘point’ in the light of the statement and argument thereunder.”
We have looked to the statement and argument under points of error to determine whether they qualify as “no evidence points.” Gleason v. Davis, 155 Tex. 467, 289 S.W.2d 228 (1956); Woodward v. Ortiz, 150 Tex. 75, 237 S.W.2d 286 (1951). In Gleason the court of civil appeals reversed and remanded on the ground that the appellant failed to present any no evidence points. The contention was made that the statement and argument under one of the appellant’s points of error was sufficient to raise the question of no evidence. The Gleason court, after reviewing the holdings in Fambrough and Woodward, concluded that the point of error “together with the statement and argument thereunder in appellant’s brief in the Court of Civil Appeals were sufficient to present the point of ‘no evidence.’ ”
The liberal briefing rules embodied in Rule 422 and applied by this court in Famb-rough, Woodward, and Gleason recognize that a party’s appeal should not be frustrated needlessly because of a technical error committed by his attorney. Our rules do not require that appellate courts brief cases for the parties; they merely obligate the courts to consider appeals that are presented in reasonably understandable fashion. Rule 418(b), Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, provides that points of error “will be sufficient if they direct the attention of the court to the error relied upon and they should ordinarily be so concisely stated that they may appear, separately numbered, on a single page of the brief.” According to Rule 422, if an appellant fails to comply with these requirements, the court of civil appeals may require that the case be re-briefed.
In the instant case it is undoubtedly true that the points of error stated in the appellant’s brief are improper. First, the appellant did not have a separately numbered point of error complaining of the overruling of its motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. Instead, the appellant inserted directly beneath its numbered points the following statement:
“THAT COLLECTIVELY, THE HONORABLE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN *884NOT GRANTING AIRWAY’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT NON OBSTANTE YERDICTO [sic].”
A second and more critical defect in the points of error was that they did not correspond to the matters stated in the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. The motion for judgment non obstante veredicto stated that the applicability of the three policy exclusions was established as a matter of law, while the points of error stated that the jury findings regarding the policy exclusions were against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.
In Wagner v. Foster, 161 Tex. 333, 341 S.W.2d 887 (Tex.1960), this court held that if an appellant files a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto but not a motion for new trial, his points of error on appeal must be predicated on matters stated in the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. Since in the instant case the appellant’s points of error were not predicated on matters stated in the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, the central issue is whether the arguments under the points of error were sufficient to cure the defects in the points. If the thrust of the arguments under the points of error was that the policy exclusions were established as a matter of law, then the improper wording of the points of error should not be fatal.
Contrary to the conclusion drawn by the majority, the arguments in the appellant’s brief clearly contend that the exclusions in the insurance policy were established as a matter of law. Each of the appellant’s three points of error referred to one of the three policy exclusions that it relied upon in its motion for judgment non obstante vere-dicto. The arguments presented under the first and third points of error are considered below. The arguments pertaining to the second point of error are not considered because they relate to the conditional jury issue that was not answered.
First Point of Error. In its abbreviated argument under this point the appellant cited cases which suggest that the relationship between Henry and Denton constituted a bailment or a conditional sale as the courts have defined such terms. The appellant further argued that the buyer’s order executed by Denton constituted a purchase agreement. The conclusion drawn was stated succinctly:
“Since the jury only had to find possession alternatively under a ‘bailment’, ‘conditional sale’, or ‘purchase agreement’, the facts, no matter how construed, show possession and fit into one of these three (3) categories.”
Instead of attempting to determine the thrust of the appellant’s arguments under its first point of error, the majority has proceeded to evaluate the appellant’s arguments. This was the task of the court of civil appeals. Our task is merely to determine whether the appellant was arguing that the policy exclusions were established as a matter of law. This is different from deciding whether the evidence relative to the policy exclusions was conclusively established. Accordingly, the following statements in the majority opinion are beside the point:
“Airway made no assertion or argument that the above ‘possession factors’ were undisputed or conclusively established as a matter of law. Actually, part of 3 and all of 4 were disputed by the testimony of Hank Henry.”
And:
“Finally, a single sentence was devoted to Airway’s contention that the ‘Buyer’s Order’ constitutes a ‘purchase agreement’ . . Airway did not note that the offer was not signed or accepted by or on behalf of the owner.”
The fact that some of the “possession factors” were disputed has no bearing on whether the appellant was arguing that the exclusion was established as a matter of law. It was not necessary that the appellant expressly state that the “possession *885factors” were conclusively established; the appellant obviously assumed throughout its argument that the various “possession factors” were conclusively established. Similarly, the fact that the buyer’s order was not signed or accepted may be a reason for holding that it did not constitute a “purchase agreement,” but the. appellant may nevertheless have been arguing that the buyer’s order constituted a “purchase agreement” as a matter of law.
The majority in effect concludes that the policy exclusion pertaining to bailments, conditional sales, and purchase agreements was not established as a matter of law; its analysis sheds little light on what the appellant was actually arguing. A fair reading of the appellant’s argument under its first point of error clearly reveals that the appellant was arguing the law rather than the facts.
Third Point of Error. With regard to the exclusion for nonlicensed pilots, Airway obtained a Record of Diligent Search from the FAA indicating that Denton did not have a pilot’s license of any kind. Henry admitted in a pretrial deposition that his own investigation satisfied him that Denton was not licensed. At trial Henry hedged on this question saying, “Some said he had it and some said he didn’t.” In its argument under this point of error the appellant stressed that the FAA Record of Diligent Search indicating that Denton did not have a pilot’s license was admissible and that it established prima facie the applicability of the policy exclusion pertaining to unlicensed pilots. The appellant further contended that Henry’s equivocal statement that “[sjome said he had it [the pilot’s license] and some said he didn’t,” did not constitute any evidence to the contrary because the statement was hearsay and inconsistent with Henry’s earlier deposition. The following sentence summarized the appellant’s position:
“In the instant case, the testimony of Mr. Henry, as respecting the question of Mr. Denton’s license, being wholly inconsistent, as reflected hereinabove, reflects there is in essence no other evidence, and his opinions, if any, based on hearsay, reflect there is in essence no other evidence, either direct or indirect, to overcome the proof on ‘no license’ established by Def’s Ex. 1.”
Although the majority opinion cites the above sentence, it concludes that the appellant’s argument refers to an “insufficiency point” because in wrapping up the argument it stated:
“That Def’s Ex. 1, coupled with Mr. Henry’s testimony at his deposition, even though somewhat retracted at trial, showed the jury’s findings are against the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong.”
It is not surprising that the conclusion was stated in the above manner. Based on the points of error in the appellant’s brief it is evident that its attorney misinterpreted the distinction in terminology between “no evidence points” and “insufficiency points.” By ignoring the thrust of the appellant’s argument and simply relying upon the above conclusion, this court retreats from the salutary rule established in Fambrough, Woodward, and Gleason. It is undeniable that the thrust of the argument under the third point of error was that the policy exclusion pertaining to unlicensed pilots was established as a matter of law.
Having demonstrated that the appellant’s points of error, as interpreted in light of the arguments in its brief, were preserved by the motion for judgment non obstante vere-dicto, it is necessary to consider the other defect in the points of error; namely, the absence of a separately numbered point complaining of the overruling of the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. Immediately following the appellant’s points of error was this statement:
“THAT COLLECTIVELY, THE HONORABLE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN *886NOT GRANTING AIRWAY’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT NON OBSTANTE VERDICTO [sic].”
The statement referred to each of the appellant’s numbered points of error with the result that each point of error complained of the trial court’s denial of the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. The inclusion of this statement at the end of the points of error was unconventional but it was also unmistakable in its meaning. Moreover, if the court of civil appeals felt that the appellant’s statement of its points of error was confusing or uncertain, it could and it should have required that the case be rebriefed rather than dismissing the appeal. The rebriefing procedure in Rule 422 is designed to assure compliance with briefing rules, such as Rule 418(b), pertaining to points of error, without unduly penalizing a party by dismissing his appeal. Rebriefing would have been particularly appropriate in the instant case because the defects were in the points of error rather than the appellant’s argument. By requiring rebriefing, the court of civil appeals might have eliminated the defects in the points of error that precluded its consideration of the appellant’s argument.
The majority seems to conclude that the appellant did not bring forward a point of error complaining of the overruling of the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. The majority overlooks that the arguments in the appellant’s brief were in substance virtually identical with the arguments presented in the motion for judgment non obstante veredicto. In light of these arguments and the quoted statement immediately following the points of error, it is clear that the appellant did bring forward points of error complaining of the overruling of the motion for judgment non obstan-te veredicto.
The majority concludes that the appellant’s points of error should be treated as “insufficiency points” because the procedural relief requested was a remand rather than rendition. However, it has never been held that a court may refuse to consider an appeal because the appellant requested the wrong procedural relief. It is well settled that under certain circumstances a court of civil appeals may remand a case after sustaining a no evidence point. Lanford v. Smith, 128 Tex. 373, 99 S.W.2d 593 (1936). Furthermore, there is absolutely no support for the majority’s conclusion in Fambrough, Woodward or Gleason. Those cases merely held that courts should look to the argument under a point of error; nothing was said about the importance of the procedural relief requested.
What becomes clear is that the majority opinion is not supported by any sound rationale and it deserts the well-considered rules announced in Fambrough, Woodward, and Gleason.