Overall v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc.

869 S.W.2d 629, 1994 WL 1859
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 6, 1994
DocketC14-93-00120-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 869 S.W.2d 629 (Overall v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, 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
Overall v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., 869 S.W.2d 629, 1994 WL 1859 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

CANNON, Justice.

Appellant, Wayne M. Overall, appeals from a final judgment in favor of Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., appellee, on a debt arising, out of two contracts. Appellant brings three points of error challenging the trial court’s exclusion of his exhibits, authenticity of appellee’s exhibits, and sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm.

Appellant executed two agreements to publish Yellow Pages directory advertising in 1989 and 1990. The name to be listed in the directory was Painting Professionals. Billing was to be sent to Painting Professionals at a Houston address. The contracts were signed “Wayne M. Overall,” and the word “Owner” was written in the space next to appellant’s signature. The terms called for payment in twelve installments of approximately $1383.86 and $1915.25, respectively. No mention is made anywhere on either contract of a corporation with the name of “The Overall Corporation.”

Appellee filed suit on March 13, 1991, seeking to hold appellant liable in his individual capacity. Appellant responded with a verified denial, and discovery was conducted. Appellee sent written interrogatories and requested production of appellant’s copies of the contracts he executed, as well as a copy of a d/b/a registration filed with the Harris County Clerk’s office. Appellant described these documents in detail in his answer to the interrogatories, and stated that the documents were available for inspection at the office of appellant’s attorney. At trial appellant attempted to introduce these documents into evidence. The trial court excluded them based upon appellant’s failure to produce the documents.

In his first point of error, appellant argues that the trial court erred or abused its discretion by denying introduction of his exhibits 1, 2, and 3, into evidence. Appellant predicates his assertion on the premise that the discovery request, which was the basis for the trial court’s exclusion, was defective on its face. Appellee’s discovery request integrated both their interrogatories and requests for production in a single instrument and stated that pursuant to the rules of civil procedure, appellant was required to respond within thirty days.

Rule 167 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure requires that a party object to, or comply with, a request for production not served *631 along with the citation within 30 days after service of the request. Rule 168(4), however, specifically provides that the time allowed for a party to respond to interrogatories which do not accompany service of the citation shall not be less than thirty days. Clearly, appel-lee’s discovery request was contradictory.

In Lehtonen v. Clarke, 784 S.W.2d 945 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1990, writ denied), this Court held that interrogatories which purported to require answers within thirty days are defective, and that sanctions can not be predicated upon a failure to respond. Id. at 948. Appellant argues that because appellee made a conscious decision to integrate both their written interrogatories and requests for production that Lehto-nen should control.

We disagree. The rules setting out the time frames for objecting or responding to interrogatories or requests for production are precise. To hold that because appellee’s interrogatories were defective that his requests for production were also defective is, in essence, to carve an exception to the tíme requirements imposed by Rule 167. We decline to do this. We resolve the issue by holding that appellee’s written interrogatories were defective on their face. The requirement that appellant respond within in 30 days of service, however, was correct as regards the request for production. Thus appellant was required to produce the documents within 30 days. Appellant failed to do so.

Appellant also argued that the documents were available for inspection at his attorney’s office. Appellant justifies this “safeguard” with the patently absurd contention that he was afraid appellee’s representatives would alter the documents. Not only is this a disparagement upon the character of appellee’s counsel, it is an unacceptable justification to this Court for appellant’s refusal to produce the requested documents. The ease with which these documents, constituting all of three pages, could have been photocopied and provided to appellee’s attorneys is borne out by the very fact that photocopies appear in the transcript before us. The Rule requires a party to send the documents to the requesting party along with a copy of the response. Tex.R.Civ.P. 167(l)(f) (Vernon Supp.1993). Appellant did not follow the rule.

This Court is aware of cases where a responding party has been permitted to make documents available at a specified location, instead of sending them directly to the requesting party. E.g., Steenbergen v. Ford Motor Co., 814 S.W.2d 755 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1991, writ denied), reh’g overruled, cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 97, 121 L.Ed.2d 58 (1992). Such cases involve the production of many, usually thousands, of documents. In Steenbergen, for example, the defendant, Ford Motor Company, had gathered over 100,000 documents related to the litigation, and other, similar suits, in a “reading room” at its corporate headquarters, where opposing counsel could inspect and photocopy the documents. To require the defendant in that case to produce the documents at the location specified by the plaintiffs request not only would have been unduly burdensome, but would have jeopardized Ford’s defense in related law suits. The defendant sought and obtained a protective order from the court that approved production of the documents at their headquarters.

In the case before us today, however, appellant has no such justification for producing the documents at his attorney’s office. The documents involved number exactly three. Appellant did not seek a protective order. Nor did he object to the form of appellee’s questions. In short, appellant simply did not respond to the request for production.

Rule 215(5) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure provides that any party who fails to respond to or supplement a request for discovery shall not be permitted to present evidence on that point unless the trial court finds good cause sufficient to require admission exists. Alvarado v. Farah Mfg. Co., Inc., 830 S.W.2d 911, 914 (Tex.1992). The exclusion is mandatory. There was no good cause sufficient to require admission of appellant’s exhibits. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit appellant’s exhibits. We overrule his first point of error.

*632 In Ms second point of error, appellant alleges that the trial court erred by denying evidence contesting the authenticity and/or genuineness of the written contract. Appellant complains that he was not permitted to contest the genuineness of the contracts at trial because the trial court incorrectly ruled that he had failed to deny the genuineness of the document.

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869 S.W.2d 629, 1994 WL 1859, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/overall-v-southwestern-bell-yellow-pages-inc-texapp-1994.