Garza v. Berlanga

575 S.W.2d 639, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 4071
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 15, 1978
DocketNo. 16189
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 575 S.W.2d 639 (Garza v. Berlanga) 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
Garza v. Berlanga, 575 S.W.2d 639, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 4071 (Tex. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

On October 24, 1978, appellants filed a-motion for extension of time within which to file the statement of facts in this court. The statement of facts was required to be filed in this court no later than October 30, 1978, and the motion for extension requested that the time be extended until April 30, 1979. The stated reason for the requested extension was the inability of the court reporter to complete the statement of facts prior to April 30, 1979.

The motion was supported by the affidavit of the court reporter which stated:

Due to the heavy work load I have been faced with in my official duties, I will be unable to prepare the Statement of Facts in order to have the same filed by October 30, 1978, and due to such official duties and thirteen prior orders for records in other cases will be unable to complete this Statement of Facts until April 30, 1979.

[640]*640Upon receipt of such motion, this court directed the attorneys for appellant to furnish this court with information showing the cases on which the court reporter was working or in which statements of fact had been requested prior to this case, including the dates on which such prior requests had been made. We now have before us the affidavit of the court reporter listing eight, not thirteen, cases in which statements of facts had been requested prior to the receipt of the request in this case.1 Omitting the names of the parties, the list set out in this second affidavit may be summarized as follows:

8-09-78 1,200 1-15-79
8-18-78 430 2-20-79
8-25-78 100 2-27-79
8-29-78 25 3-5-79
8-30-78 15 3-9-79
9-06-78 360 4-6-79
9-18-78 50 4-13-79
9-19-78 125 4-27-79

Neither the motion itself nor the court reporter’s affidavit contains any indication of the estimated length of the statement of facts in this case.

Excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, there are 107 days between August 9, 1978, the date on which the statement of facts estimated to contain 1,200 pages was requested, and January 15, 1979, the date on which, according to the reporter’s affidavit, completion of the statement of facts is contemplated. We are, of course, aware of the fact that it is the duty of a court reporter to record testimony given during the course of judicial proceedings. We can, however, take judicial notice of the fact that in Bexar County, the county where this court sits, court reporters do not spend eight hours a day, Monday through Friday recording testimony.

According to the reporter’s affidavit with reference to the 1,200-page document, we deduce that based on his time estimates, the reporter will transcribe between 11 and 12 pages a day, assuming that he will do no work on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. A statement of facts is normally typed on letter-size paper, 8½ inches wide and 11 inches long, double spaced. The average page contains about 180 words. Assuming a minimum typing speed of 40 words per minute, it would take about 4.5 minutes to type a page. This means that between 13 and 14 pages could be produced in one hour. Of course, it is realized that production would be at a somewhat slower rate if the reporter had difficulty deciphering his notes or understanding the tape recordings.

Courts are aware of the conflicting duties of court reporters, but it has been previously held that Article 2324, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. Ann. (Vernon 1971) expressly includes the preparation of statements of fact as part of the reporter’s official duties. Modine Manufacturing Co. v. North East Independent School District, 489 S.W.2d 458 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1972, no writ); Figueroa v. Treece, 331 S.W.2d 250 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1960, no writ). The statutes, such as Article 2326j-78, Tex.Rev.Civ. Stat.Ann. (Vernon Supp. 1978-1979), which relate to payment of court reporters out of county funds, clearly contemplate that such payment shall be compensation for the time spent by the reporter in recording testimony as it comes from the witness stand during the course of a judicial proceeding. The fact that court reporters are authorized to charge and keep as their personal funds additional amounts for the preparation of statements of facts recognizes that such preparation will, at least to some extent, require that the reporter labor at times when he is not actually present in the courtroom recording testimony. That is, the additional compensation can be considered as a reward for labor performed during what would otherwise be a reporter’s leisure time. It is reasonable to assume that the [641]

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O'NEAL v. Stovall
580 S.W.2d 130 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
575 S.W.2d 639, 1978 Tex. App. LEXIS 4071, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garza-v-berlanga-texapp-1978.