in the Interest of T.K.D-H., a Child

439 S.W.3d 473, 2014 WL 3116396, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 7392
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 9, 2014·No. 04-13-00619-CV·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

*476 OPINION

Opinion by:

SANDEE BRYAN MARION, Justice.

This appeal arises from an order entered following a hearing on an enforcement action filed by the minor child’s mother, Lupe, and a suit to modify the parent-child relationship filed by the child’s father, Jose. 1 On appeal, Jose asserts the trial court erred by excluding his expert, excluding two photographs he attempted to admit into evidence, and admitting a video submitted into evidence by Lupe. Jose also asserts the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s rulings regarding Lupe’s exclusive rights. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

In a February 2005 Order Establishing the Parent-Child Relationship, the trial court appointed Jose and Lupe joint managing conservators of their daughter TKD-H. Lupe was granted, among other exclusive rights, the right to: (1) designate the child’s primary residence; (2) consent to medical, dental, and psychiatric, psychological, and surgical treatment; and (3) make decisions regarding the child’s education. 2 Subsequently, two other modification orders were entered, the latest on August 18, 2010. Neither subsequent order modified Lupe’s exclusive rights.

On August 11, 2011, Lupe filed a Motion for Enforcement alleging possession violations by Jose. On February 22, 2012, Jose filed a Petition to Modify the Parent-Child Relationship, which he later amended in February 2013. Jose alleged Lupe has a history or pattern of family violence, and he asked to be appointed the person who has the right to designate the child’s primary residence. Following a bench trial on the motion and petition, the trial court entered an order denying Jose’s petition to modify, continued both parents as joint managing conservators, and granted Lupe the same exclusive rights with one change in language. Lupe was granted “the exclusive right to consent to medical, dental, and surgical treatment involving invasive procedures”. 3 [Emphasis added.] Jose now appeals.

EXPERT WITNESS

At trial, Jose called Mari Ries to the stand to testify about a “Child Custody Evaluation” she performed for him. Ries testified she was asked to do “a one sided social study,” which she explained, meant she interviewed and assessed the situation, interviewed Jose and TKD-H, performed a home visit, and interviewed references. Her evaluation was a written summary of those interviews. When Jose’s attorney asked Ries whether she witnessed interaction between Jose and TKD-H, Lupe’s attorney interrupted and asked for a date and time period when the interview occurred. Ries responded her home visit occurred on March 9, 2013. Lupe’s attorney then objected that Ries’s testimony *477 was outside the scope of discovery because the period of discovery ended On February 11, 2013. The trial court sustained the objection, and Ries was excused. In his first two issues on appeal, Jose asserts the trial court erred in excluding Ries and the exclusion amounted to an improper death penalty sanction. We review a trial court’s exclusion of evidence for an abuse of discretion. In re 180 S.W.3d 570, 575 (Tex.2005) (per curiam) (parental termination case).

The trial court’s February 7, 2013, temporary orders extended a previous discovery deadline to February 11, 2013, and set trial to commence on March 4, 2013. On February 11, 201$, Jose served his First Supplemental Responses to [Lupe’s] Rule 194 Requests for Disclosure, ip which he quoted Texas Rule qf Civil Procedure 194.2(f)’s required contents of a testifying expert’s disclosure and made the following disclosure:

SUPPLEMENTAL RESPONSE
Mari Reis
85 NE Loop 410, # 3Í9
San Antonio 78216
(210) 632-0688

On appeal, Jose asserts that, based on this disclosure, “[t]here is no question that Mari Ries, LPC, was tiinely designated on February 11, 2013, in accordance with the discovery deadline imposed in the Temporary Order.” We disagree because the response only provides part of the information required in Rule 194(f).

Rule 194.2(f) requires the following be disclosed for any testifying expert:

(1) the expert’s name, address, and telephone number;
(2) the subject matter on which the expert will testify;
(3) the general substahce of the Expert’s mental impressions and opinions arid a brief summary of the basis for them, or if the expert is not retained by, employed by, or otherwise subject to the control of the responding party, documents reflecting such information;
(4)if the expert is retained by, employed by, or otherwise subject to the control of the responding party:
(A) all documents, tangible things, reports, models, or data compilations that have been provided to, reviewed by, or prepared by or for the expert in anticipation of the expert’s testimony; and
(B) the expert’s current resume and bibliography ....

Tex.R. Civ. P. 194.2(f).

The purpose of Rule 194.2(f) is “to give the opposing party sufficient information about the expert’s opinions to prepare to cross-examine the expert and to prepare expert rebuttal evidence.” Miller v. Kennedy & Minshew, P.C., 142 S.W.3d 325, 348 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2003, pet. denied). Here, Jose provided Ries’s name and contact information, but he did not provide any of the other information required by Rule 194.2(f). Therefore, even if his disclosure was filed on or before the discovery deadline, the disclosure did not comply with the requisites of Rule 194.2(f). See Bexar Cnty. Appraisal Dist. v. Abdo, 399 S.W,3d 248, 256-57 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2012, no pet.) (trial court did not err in excluding expert when District’s “disclosure” regarding expert only vaguely stated expert may testify “about what is and what is not useable land and/or what is or is not in the floodplain” “and/or matters associated therewith”); In re M.H., 319 S.W.3d 137, 146 (Tex.App.-Waco 2010, no pet.) (concluding expert should not have been permitted to testify because Department’s “disclosure” did “not in any manner identify or disclose: (1) ‘the general substance of the expert’s mental impressions and opinions’; (2) ‘a brief summary of the basis for *478 them’ (with regard to [a retained expert]); or (3) documents reflecting such a summary with regard to the non-retained experts”).

Jose also asserts Ries was timely disclosed because the trial date was continued; therefore, the discovery deadline was continued.

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in the Interest of T.K.D-H., a Child, 439 S.W.3d 473, 2014 WL 3116396, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 7392 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

439 S.W.3d 473 (in the Interest of T.K.D-H., a Child) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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