Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla Ex Rel. Escamilla

921 S.W.2d 723, 1996 WL 63966
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 18, 1996
Docket13-94-390-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 921 S.W.2d 723 (Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla Ex Rel. Escamilla) 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
Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla Ex Rel. Escamilla, 921 S.W.2d 723, 1996 WL 63966 (Tex. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

SEERDEN, Chief Justice.

Esteban Escamilla appeals from a judgment against him setting aside his deed to a one-acre tract with a house on it and substituting a corrected deed to a vacant one-acre tract. Trial was to the court without a jury. By two points of error, Esteban challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment and argues that the present action was barred by the statute of limitations. We affirm.

Anselmo and Bruna Escamilla conveyed one-acre tracts of land from their twenty-acre family farm to each of their three sons, Anselmo, Jr., Rito, and Esteban, by deed dated April 12, 1984. The tracts deeded to Anselmo, Jr. and Rito were vacant. However, the land deeded to Esteban was the tract on which his parents’ house was located. Subsequently, Anselmo, Sr. died.

Appellees, Bruna and the estate of Anselmo, Sr., filed the present lawsuit on January 4, 1988, alleging that Esteban had fraudulently and by use of threats taken the property from Bruna, and asking for the return of the property from Esteban. After the first trial in 1990, the trial court set aside the 1984 deed. This Court reversed this judgment on the ground that the pleadings failed to ask for reformation of a deed or even mention the 1984 deed to Esteban which is presently in contention. Accordingly, we remanded to the trial court in the interest of justice to allow appellees to replead their action for reformation. Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla, 805 S.W.2d 886 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1991, no writ).

On May 27, 1993, appellees filed Plaintiffs First Supplemental Petition alleging that the 1984 deed was the result of mistake and asking for reformation to reflect the true intent to convey a vacant tract to Esteban. After a second trial, the trial court entered judgment again setting aside the 1984 deed and upholding the later conveyance by Bruna of the vacant tract originally intended to be conveyed to Esteban. From this second judgment, Esteban again appeals.

By his first point of error, Esteban complains that there was no evidence to show a mistake in the original conveyance. A party is entitled to reformation of a deed upon proving the party had reached an agreement with the other party but the deed did not reflect the true agreement because of a mutual mistake. Moreover, unilateral mis *726 take by one party, and knowledge of that mistake by the other party, is equivalent to mutual mistake. Davis v. Grammar, 750 S.W.2d 766, 768 (Tex.1988).

Bruna had apparently testified at the first trial that it was not their intention to convey the house to Esteban. However, by the time of the second trial, Bruna had died. Appel-lees nevertheless asked, and the trial court agreed, to take judicial notice of Bruna’s testimony from the first trial.

A trial court may generally take judicial notice of its own records in a case involving the same subject matter between the same or practically the same parties. Gardner v. Martin, 162 Tex. 156, 345 S.W.2d 274, 276 (1961); Briones v. Solomon, 769 S.W.2d 312, 319 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1989, writ denied); McCurry v. Aetna Casualty and Surety Co., 742 S.W.2d 863, 867 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1987, writ denied).

However, testimony from a previous trial cannot be considered by the trial judge at a subsequent trial unless it is admitted into evidence at the subsequent proceeding. Amco Mesh & Wire Co. v. Stewart, 474 S.W.2d 740, 741-42 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1971, no writ). Accordingly, in order for testimony at a prior hearing or trial to be considered at a subsequent proceeding, the transcript of such testimony must be properly authenticated and entered into evidence. See Briones, 769 S.W.2d at 319; Ex parte Turner, 478 S.W.2d 256, 258 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1972, orig. proceeding). Texas Rule of Civil Evidence 804(b)(1) specifically provides for such prior testimony to come into evidence when the witness is presently unavailable. See Celotex Corp. v. Tate, 797 S.W.2d 197, 205 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1990, no writ).

In the present case, however, appel-lees failed to offer a transcript of Bruna’s prior testimony into evidence at the second trial. The trial judge’s own memory of what the witness may have said at the prior proceeding is insufficient to substitute for an accurate and properly authenticated record of that testimony. Accordingly, whatever Bruna’s testimony may have been at the first trial, such testimony was not properly before the trial court at the second trial and provides no evidence concerning the intent of' the parties regarding the conveyance.

Without Bruna’s testimony, Rito and his wife Anita were left as the only surviving witnesses at the second trial who were able to testify directly to his parents’ intent not to convey their house to Esteban. Rito testified that his parents had told him that they intended to give each of their children, including Esteban, only a vacant one-acre tract. Rito further testified that Esteban knew that his parents intended to give him the vacant tract, but instead had a survey taken of the tract on which the house stands and gave the survey description to his parents for inclusion in the deed to him. Accordingly, Esteban knew that he was getting a deed to property that his parents never intended to give him. Rito finally testified that his mother told him several times afterward that when she signed the first deed she thought that she was giving Esteban the vacant tract instead of the tract on which her house stands.

Esteban correctly points out that Rito’s testimony concerning statements made by his deceased parents must have been corroborated under the Dead Man’s Statute, Texas Rule of Civil Evidence 601(b), which provides generally that “[i]n actions by or against executors, administrators, or guardians, in which judgment may be rendered for or against them as such, neither party shall be allowed to testify against the others as to any oral statement by the testator, intestate or ward, unless that testimony to the oral statement is corroborated....” See Quitta v. Fossati, 808 S.W.2d 636, 641 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1991, writ denied).

Corroborating evidence may come from any other competent witness or other legal source. Id. It must tend to support some of the material allegations or issues which are raised by the pleadings and testified to by the witness whose evidence is sought to be corroborated. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
921 S.W.2d 723, 1996 WL 63966, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/escamilla-v-estate-of-escamilla-ex-rel-escamilla-texapp-1996.