Court Opinion

ID: 9666574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:20:12.50877+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:30.302786
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
On motion for rehearing, defendant argues for the first time that this Court erred in affirming that portion of the trial court’s judgment which allowed plaintiff lessee to recover $6,786.58 for loss of personal property because, the lease as written, requires the lessor to insure “the leased premises” which does not encompass the personal property contents of the lessee. It seems to be defendant’s contention now that this Court interpreted paragraph 8 of the lease and held as a matter of law that the reference in paragraph 8 to “the leased premises” included the personal property contents of the lessee.
*872In this case defendant lessor sought equitable reformation of the lease and a proportionate share of plaintiff lessee’s personal property contents insurance policy on the theory that there was a mutual mistake resulting from a scrivener’s error in paragraph 8, or, in the alternative, there was a unilateral mistake which justified reformation due to the lessee's fraudulent misrepresentations. Plaintiff, on the other hand, sought to enforce the lease as it was written and to recover damages due to the loss of her personal property in excess of the personal property contents policy she maintained. At trial both parties contended in effect that paragraph 8 of the lease, particularly the sentence “[s]uch policy or policies shall insure Lessor or Lessee as their respective interest may appear” required insurance to cover the personal property contents of both the Lessor and Lessee. As stated in our original opinion, neither party at trial contended the lease provision in question was vague or ambiguous. Therefore, the interpretation of the instrument was a question of law for the trial court. Implicit in the trial court’s judgment awarding damages to plaintiff for her loss of personal property, is the trial court’s agreement with the parties’ own interpretation of paragraph 8. Nowhere in her motion for judgment n.o.v., motion for new trial, or by point of error and arguments and authorities thereunder on appeal, did defendant lessor suggest that the lease was vague, ambiguous, or that the trial court had erroneously interpreted paragraph 8 of the lease. Therefore, on appeal, we did not consider defendants’ new point of error, that of the trial court’s interpretation of the lease, nor do we now on motion for rehearing.
The law does not impose upon the appellate court the duty of discovering, from the pleadings, evidence, and other matters of record, whether the trial court might have committed reversible error in its decision of the case. The appellant has the burden throughout to designate in proper assignments of error and in arguments and authorities in the brief the particular errors relied upon for reversal. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. v. McFerrin, 156 Tex. 69, 291 S.W.2d 931, 941 (1956); Holzapfel v. Brueggman, 404 S.W.2d 916, 920 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1966, writ ref'd n.r.e); McClanahan v. Cook, 401 S.W.2d 352, 354 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1966, no writ). The Courts of Civil Appeals may only consider properly perfected points of error on appeal in light of the argument and authorities developed in the appellant’s brief which sufficiently direct the Court’s attention to the error upon which the appellant relies. Wagner v. Foster, 161 Tex. 333, 341 S.W.2d 887 (1960); Saldana v. Garcia, 275 S.W.2d 563 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1955, aff’d, 155 Tex. 242, 285 S.W.2d 197, 200 (1957).
An assignment of error raised for the first time in appellant’s motion for rehearing in the Court of Civil Appeals is too late to be considered. Lone Star Gas Company v. Sheaner, 157 Tex. 508, 305 S.W.2d 150, 153 (1957); W. T. Burton Co. v. Keown Contracting Co., 353 S.W.2d 909 (Tex.Civ.App.—Beaumont 1961, writ ref'd n.r.e.); Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Barrett, 172 S.W.2d 997 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1943, writ ref’d w.o.m.). The appellate courts may, in some rare situations, consider an unassigned error, but only if the error can be classified properly as “fundamental error.” State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. v. Cowley, 468 S.W.2d 353 (Tex.Sup.1971); Newman v. King, 433 S.W.2d 420 (Tex.Sup.1968); Asbeck v. Asbeck, 369 S.W.2d 915 (Tex.Sup.1963); Texas Power and Light Co. v. Cole, 158 Tex. 495, 313 S.W.2d 524 (1958). There is no fundamental error here present. Defendant lessor’s assignments of error relating to this new interpretation of paragraph 8 of- the lease are all overruled.
We have carefully considered all of the other assignments of error contained in defendant’s motion for rehearing and find that they are without merit. Defendant’s motion for rehearing is overruled.