Lopez v. La Madeleine of Texas, Inc.

200 S.W.3d 854, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 7577, 2006 WL 2458557
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 25, 2006
DocketNo. 05-04-00847-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 200 S.W.3d 854 (Lopez v. La Madeleine of Texas, 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
Lopez v. La Madeleine of Texas, Inc., 200 S.W.3d 854, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 7577, 2006 WL 2458557 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion By

Justice MOSELEY.

This personal injury case presented the trial court with a dilemma. Appellee La Madeleine of Texas., Inc., individually and d/b/a La Madeleine French Bakery and Café and d/b/a La Madeleine, used a surveillance videotape and photos at trial to show — apparently successfully — that appellant Oscar Luis Lopez had testified falsely about the extent of his injuries. However, counsel for La Madeleine intentionally failed to disclose the existence of the tape and photos during discovery, despite a specific discovery request that La Madeleine produce any “tape recordings, pictures or videos of Plaintiff or any witness in this case.”

Thus, the dilemma is whether a trial court may, under our rules, allow a party to impeach a witness and refute possibly perjured testimony by introducing evidence that was withheld from disclosure in violation of the rules regarding discovery. The trial court, concerned about Lopez’s possible perjury, admitted the undisclosed evidence over Lopez’s objection and despite a pretrial order stating that evidence not produced would not be admitted.

After the trial court allowed La Madeleine to introduce the videotape and photos, the jury found La Madeleine was not negligent in causing Lopez’s injuries, and the trial court entered a take-nothing judgment. The trial court also denied Lopez’s motion for new trial and motion for sanctions based on La Madeleine’s failure to disclose the videotape used at trial. However, the trial court specifically found that La Madeleine’s counsel had no good cause for failing to supplement discovery and produce the materials.

[857]*857A trial court has a number of tools at its disposal for dealing with perjured testimony and upholding the sanctity of the judicial process, which we need not detail here. However, the issue facing the trial court is controlled by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.6, which provides for the automatic exclusion of La Madeleine’s evidence unless it can show: (1) good cause for failing to timely disclose the information; or (2) that the failure to timely disclose the information “will not unfairly surprise or unfairly prejudice” Lopez. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 193.6(a).

By its finding of no good cause for failing to disclose the videotape and photos, the trial court rejected the first exception to the automatic exclusionary effect of rule 193.6(a). After reviewing the record, we conclude there is no support for the trial court’s implied finding as to the second exception — that Lopez was not unfairly surprised or prejudiced by admission of the undisclosed videotape and photos. Thus, the videotape and photos should have been excluded, and the trial court abused its discretion in ruling otherwise. Further, we conclude the trial court’s error probably caused the rendition of an improper judgment in this case. Tex. R.App. P. 44.1(a)(1).

Failing to reach both of the above conclusions would undercut the goal of encouraging full discovery of the issues and facts prior to trial. It would diminish the parties’ abilities to evaluate realistically their cases and engage in meaningful settlement negotiations, conserving judicial resources for those cases that cannot be resolved short of trial. Further, it would increase the opportunities for parties— both plaintiff and defendant — -to “sandbag” each other in hopes of a favorable trial outcome based on the disfavored practice of “trial by ambush.”

Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s final judgment and remand this cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. However, for the reasons stated below, we affirm the trial court’s order on Lopez’s motion for sanctions.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Lopez sued La Madeleine, his employer, alleging its negligence caused an on-the-job accident resulting in his injuries.1 When the accident occurred, Lopez was about forty years old and had been employed at La Madeleine for twelve years, most recently as a baker. Lopez alleged that, as he was pulling a bread rack, his foot slipped on a damaged drain cover, which was bent or loose, and got caught in the open drain hole, causing him to fall backwards. Lopez struck his head, and the bread rack fell on him. Lopez alleged that he was unconscious for a period of time, received emergency care, and suffered serious and permanent injuries to his head, neck, back, and spine, including abrasions. He asserted actual damages for past and future pain, mental anguish, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, physical impairment, disfigurement, and medical and hospital expenses; costs of court; and pre- and post-judgment interest.

Lopez’s First Request for Production to La Madeleine included Request No. 7: “Produce any tape recordings, pictures or videos of Plaintiff or any witness in this case.” La Madeleine objected to Request No. 7 in its Answers and Objections, and stated it was “unaware of any such material.” Lopez moved to compel discovery, requesting the trial court to strike La Madeleine’s objections and order it to supple[858]*858ment the discovery requests. La Madeleine agreed to withdraw its objections to Request No. 7 and to supplement the response. Subsequently, in its Supplemental Responses to Lopez’s First Request for Production, La Madeleine responded to Request No. 7: “Defendant is not currently in possession of any documents responsive to this request.” This response was signed by Robert Turner, Lopez’s trial counsel.

La Madeleine served no additional responses to Request No. 7. Further, despite Lopez’s request that La Madeleine “produce a Privilege Log identifying any and all documents which Defendant contends are not discoverable based on privilege,” no privilege log was produced identifying any videotape or photographs. On October 30, 2003, the trial court signed an order that stated, in part, “The Court further orders that the parties may not admit into evidence at the time of trial any documents which have not been produced.” No videotapes or photographs were produced during discovery.

At trial, Lopez testified to his physical limitations, including inability to bend completely from the waist and to perform landscaping work. Then La Madeleine, outside the presence of the jury, indicated to the trial court it had — and wanted to introduce — a videotape and photographs (still photos taken from the videotape) taken after the discovery cutoff, showing Lopez performing landscape work about three weeks before trial. Lopez objected to the evidence based on La Madeleine’s failure to produce the evidence. Lopez argued that La Madeleine had “made a choice” not to produce the evidence; the rules and the trial court’s order required exclusion of the evidence; and counsel had no opportunity to determine if the evidence was authentic. Referring to the hearing on Lopez’s motion to compel discovery and the trial court’s October 30, 2003 order, counsel for La Madeleine stated that the videotape and photos were attorney work-product, and that he relied on the trial court’s statement that it had to be produced at discovery only if he had intended to use it at trial. La Madeleine insisted that the evidence was still admissible “solely for the purposes of impeachment” and that counsel had prepared a trial brief “on the use of undisclosed evidence for impeachment.” Lopez countered that such planning showed “a conscious regard to intend to do this.” Lopez stated:

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Bluebook (online)
200 S.W.3d 854, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 7577, 2006 WL 2458557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lopez-v-la-madeleine-of-texas-inc-texapp-2006.