Blake v. Dorado

211 S.W.3d 429, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 10458, 2006 WL 3517846
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 7, 2006
Docket08-04-00321-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 211 S.W.3d 429 (Blake v. Dorado) 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
Blake v. Dorado, 211 S.W.3d 429, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 10458, 2006 WL 3517846 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

ANN CRAWFORD McCLURE, Justice.

This is an appeal from a no-evidence summary judgment granted in favor of Araceli Dorado and her brother, Jose Luis Dorado (the Dorados). Jane Blake and her son, Mike Hardesty (Blake), filed suit against the Dorados alleging negligence and negligent entrustment following a fatal car accident. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

On May 27, 2002, Mr. Dorado ran a red light and struck another car, killing the driver and seriously injuring a passenger. Blake filed suit on August 8, 2002 and alleged that the case should be conducted with a Level 2 discovery control plan. See Tex.R.Civ.P. 190.3. Written discovery began in October. With the deadline for several discovery responses past due, the parties entered into a Rule 11 agreement setting January 23, 2003 as the deadline for objecting and responding to the outstanding requests.

The case was set for trial in February 2004. On January 29, as part of a motion for continuance, the Dorados complained that Blake’s responses to various discovery requests remained incomplete and additional time was needed for discovery. The trial court granted the motion and reset the case for August 6. On January 29, 2004, the Dorados filed a motion to compel the now overdue discovery requests, complaining that the deadline had passed nearly a year earlier. The trial court granted the motion and awarded sanctions of $900.

On July 7, the Dorados filed a no-evidence motion for summary judgment. In response, Blake attached five exhibits, including Mr. Dorado’s statement to the police after the accident (Exhibit A); answers to interrogatories (Exhibit A-l); certified copies of a notice of intent to use extraneous offenses and corresponding traffic violations (Exhibit B); a guilty plea (Exhibit C); and an affidavit by a witness to the accident (Exhibit D). The trial court sustained the Dorados’ objections and granted their motion to exclude all of the exhibits except the answers to interrogatories. Summary judgment was granted on August 3, 2004.

On appeal, Blake complains that the trial court erroneously excluded their exhibits and that summary judgment was improper because the evidence raised genuine issues of material fact. An ancillary issue challenges the sanctions imposed in connection with the Dorados’ motion to compel.

EXCLUSION OF EVIDENCE

Standard of Review

We review the exclusion of summary judgment evidence for an abuse of *432 discretion. Barraza v. Eureka Co., 25 S.W.Bd 225, 228 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2000, pet. denied). A trial court abuses its discretion when it acts without reference to any guiding rules or principles. Downer v. Aquamarine Operators, Inc., 701 S.W.2d 238, 241-42 (Tex.1985). The fact that a trial court may decide a matter within its discretion in a different manner than we would does not demonstrate that an abuse of discretion has occurred. Downer, 701 S.W.2d at 242.

Exhibits A, B, and C

The Dorados filed their motion for summary judgment eighteen months after the end of the designated discovery period. The exhibits in question were produced for the first time in response to the summary judgment motion. The Dorados objected that the exhibits had not been timely produced and were subject to the exclusionary sanction of Rule 193.6.

Blake claims the evidence was improperly excluded because the rules for summary judgment evidence are governed entirely by the “comprehensive scheme” contained in Rule 166a. Tex.R.Civ.P. 166a. In support of this argument, Blake directs us to State v. Roberts, 882 S.W.2d 512 (Tex.App.-Austin 1994, no writ). Roberts concerned an appeal from a condemnation proceeding originally filed in 1993. Roberts, 882 S.W.2d at 513. The State presented the affidavit of a previously un-designated expert witness as summary judgment evidence. Id. The appellate court determined that the discovery rules for expert designation did not apply because the “comprehensive scheme” in Rule 166a provided the standards of admissibility for summary judgment purposes. Id. at 514. Under the pre-1999 rules, the discovery deadline fluctuated with changing trial settings. Ersek v. Davis & Davis, P.C., 69 S.W.3d 268, 273 (Tex.App.-Austin 2002, pet. denied), citing Roberts, 882 S.W.2d at 515. This made it difficult in a summary judgment proceeding to determine what evidence had been timely produced and what had not. Id.

Roberts is clearly distinguishable because of the intervening rule revisions. See Ersek, 69 S.W.3d at 273. The discovery deadline for Level 2 cases depends on the date of the first request for written discovery and not on a fluctuating trial setting. Id. Under the current rules, when summary judgment is filed after the discovery deadline, we can easily identify what evidence was timely produced and what evidence was not. While the result in Ersek was based on the failure to timely designate an expert witness, the same analysis applies to a failure to timely respond to a request for production. Id. at 272; see Tex.R.Civ.P. 196.1(a). Evidence that would be inadmissible at trial due to the proponent’s failure to timely answer or supplement a request for production is also inadmissible in a summary judgment proceeding. Ersek, 69 S.W.3d at 273; Tex. R.Civ.P. 193.6(a). We find the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Exhibits A, B, and C.

Exhibit D

Exhibit D is the affidavit of Michael Garcia, an eyewitness to the accident. Dorado objected to the affidavit because Garcia failed to state that the facts contained in the document were “true and correct.”

An admissible affidavit must include both the affiant’s statement that the facts contained in the document are within his or her “personal knowledge” and that they are “true and correct.” Humphreys v. Caldwell, 888 S.W.2d 469, 470 (Tex.1994); Brownlee v. Brownlee, 665 S.W.2d 111, 112 (Tex.1984). Without a “true and correct” averment, the affidavit is defec *433 tive and cannot be considered as summary judgment evidence. Williams v. Conroe Indep. Sch. Dist., 809 S.W.2d 954, 958 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 1991, no writ). Although Garcia attests that the facts are based on his personal knowledge, he fails to mention that they are also “true and correct.” We find no abuse of discretion in the exclusion of evidence and we overrule Issue Two.

WAS SUMMARY JUDGMENT PROPER?

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

E.S.F. v. D.J.F.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
in Re Commitment of Aaron Gipson
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
State v. v. T.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
State for Protection of P. B. v. v. T.
575 S.W.3d 921 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019)
Richard Alan Clark, Vanacour Perkins PLLC v. Clark
546 S.W.3d 268 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017)
Guillermo Ochoa-Cronfel v. Patrick C. Murray
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Texas Department of Public Safety v. Merardo Bonilla
481 S.W.3d 646 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Adolfo F. Rodriguez v. City of Poteet
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014
Webb v. Maldonado
331 S.W.3d 879 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Lozada v. Farrall & Blackwell Agency, Inc.
323 S.W.3d 278 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Matbon, Inc. v. Gries
288 S.W.3d 471 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)
New Wave Technologies, Inc. v. Legacy Bank of Texas
281 S.W.3d 99 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Rammah v. Abdeljaber
235 S.W.3d 269 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
211 S.W.3d 429, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 10458, 2006 WL 3517846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blake-v-dorado-texapp-2006.