Beam v. A.H. Chaney, Inc.

56 S.W.3d 920, 2001 WL 1135339
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 1, 2001
Docket2-00-157-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 56 S.W.3d 920 (Beam v. A.H. Chaney, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beam v. A.H. Chaney, Inc., 56 S.W.3d 920, 2001 WL 1135339 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

LIVINGSTON, Justice.

INTRODUCTION

Appellants John Randall Beam, individually and as next friend of John Randall Beam, Jr., and John Randall Beam, Jr., individually, complain about the trial court’s admission of testimony from eyewitness Alan Baker and expert witness Leonard Vaughan and the admission of an exhibit used by Vaughan. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

At approximately 8:00 a.m. on February 17, 1998, John Randall Beam, Jr. (“Beam”) was injured in a one-car accident on State Highway 114 near the entrance to Chaney Trucking Company. Beam lost control of the pickup he was driving, slammed into a tree and then into a retaining wall.

Appellants sued appellees, alleging that the accident was caused by a large accumulation of mud and dirt deposited on the highway by appellees’ trucking companies. The jury found that Beam’s negligence caused the accident, and the trial court rendered a take-nothing judgment.

FACT WITNESS

Appellants raise six issues challenging the admission of eyewitness Alan Baker’s testimony. In their first five issues, appellants assert that appellees failed to properly designate Baker as a person with knowledge of relevant facts, that the trial court erred in admitting his testimony over their objection because there was no showing of good cause or lack of surprise or prejudice, and that the admission of his testimony was harmful. In their sixth issue, appellants contend the trial court erred by denying their motion for new trial based on newly discovered evidence concerning Baker’s testimony.

A party may obtain discovery of the name, address, and telephone number of persons with knowledge of relevant facts, and a brief statement of each identified person’s connection with the ease. Tex.R. Civ. P. 192.3(c); 194.2(e). When responding to written discovery, a party must make a complete response, and must amend or supplement the response if it later learns that the response is no longer complete and correct. Tex.R. Civ. P. 193.1, .5(a). A party who fails to disclose information concerning a nonparty witness in response to a discovery request may not offer the witness’s testimony unless the court finds that there was good cause for the failure to timely make, amend, or supplement the discovery response or the failure to make, amend, or supplement the discovery response will not unfairly surprise or unfairly prejudice the other parties. Tex.R. Civ. P. 193.6(a).

Appellants served appellees with interrogatories and requests for disclosure, both seeking the discovery of persons with knowledge of relevant facts. Tex.R. Civ. P. 194.2(e), 197. Appellants’ interrogatories sought the “name, address, and telephone number of each person, including experts, having any knowledge of relevant facts *923 relating to the accident which is the basis of this lawsuit, the cause thereof or the damages resulting therefrom.” Appellees did not disclose Baker’s name in either their original or supplemental interrogatory responses. In their request for disclosures, appellants asked for the “name, address, and telephone number of persons having knowledge of relevant facts, and brief statement of each identified person’s connection with this case.” Appellees’ response concerning Baker stated only: “Alan Baker, address unknown, 940/627-4255,” and that response was never amended prior to trial.

Appellees contend that even though their response gave neither Baker’s address nor his connection to the case, the response was merely inadequate and did not invoke the automatic exclusion penalty because they provided sufficient information for appellants to locate Baker. They also claim that rule 193.6 allows exclusion of a witness only on the ground that the offering party did not timely “identify” the witness in discovery responses; therefore, because they provided Baker’s name and telephone number, they argue that they adequately identified Baker and his testimony was properly admitted. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 193.6.

We disagree. Rules 192.3(c) and 194.2(e) placed the affirmative obligation on appellees to provide not only Baker’s name, address, and telephone number, but also his connection to the case. Appellees wholly failed to provide this information, even though it was obviously available to them because they called Baker to testify at trial. See Sharp v. Broadway Nat’l Bank, 784 S.W.2d 669, 671-72 (Tex.1990) (stating that party has no duty to remind another party to abide by the rules of civil procedure); Vingcard A.S. v. Merrimac Hospitality Sys., Inc., No. 2-00-132-CV, slip op. at 14-15, 2001 WL 897172, at *5 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth Aug. 9, 2001, no pet. h.) (holding partial discovery response that failed to provide all information requested amounted to complete failure to answer, warranting automatic exclusion of expert’s testimony as to omitted information).

Furthermore, appellees’ characterization of rule 193 as not requiring exclusion of a witness because of a failure to describe the witness’s connection to the case in response to a discovery request if the witness has been otherwise identified by name and telephone number would render the revisions to the discovery rules meaningless. Former rule 166b allowed parties to discover “the identity and location (name, address and telephone number) of ... persons having knowledge of relevant facts.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 166b(2)(d), 661-662 S.W.2d XLVI-XLVII (1984, repealed 1998). Current rule 192.3(c) entitles a party to more information that its predecessor rule 166b. Under rule 192.3(c), “[a] party may obtain discovery of the name, address, and telephone number of persons having knowledge of relevant facts, and a brief statement of each identified person’s connection with the case.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 192.3(c) (emphasis added).

We are to construe the rules of civil procedure liberally in order “to obtain a just, fair, equitable and impartial adjudication of the rights of litigants.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 1. This liberal construction does not require us to ignore the plain language of a rule, however, as appellees urge us to do. If parties were permitted to continue to identify persons with knowledge of relevant facts, without describing their connection to the case, then the new requirement would not have been included in the revised rule. We assume that the new “connection with the case” requirement was included for a reason, and that there are consequences resulting from failure to comply with it.

*924 Indeed, the facts of this case demonstrate the type of gamesmanship we believe the new requirement was intended to address. Appellees identified thirty-six persons with knowledge of relevant facts and identified five of them as eyewitnesses to the accident. Baker was not identified as one of the eyewitnesses. Appellants deposed the five people identified as eyewitnesses. However, the only eyewitness appellees called at trial was Baker, whose connection to the case was never disclosed to appellants despite their outstanding discovery requests to obtain this information.

Appellees’ failure to inform appellants of Baker’s connection to the case, absent a showing of good cause or lack of surprise or prejudice, triggers the automatic exclusion sanctions of rule 193.6.

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Bluebook (online)
56 S.W.3d 920, 2001 WL 1135339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beam-v-ah-chaney-inc-texapp-2001.