Rice Food Markets, Inc. v. Ramirez

59 S.W.3d 726, 2001 WL 883075
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 6, 2001
Docket07-00-0297-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 59 S.W.3d 726 (Rice Food Markets, Inc. v. Ramirez) 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
Rice Food Markets, Inc. v. Ramirez, 59 S.W.3d 726, 2001 WL 883075 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

JOHNSON, Justice.

Appellant Rice Food Markets, Inc. d/b/a Pricebuster Foods appeals from an adverse judgment in a suit for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. By five issues appellant urges that (1) the jury did not answer the actual damages issue, or that the answer was too ambiguous to support a judgment, (2) the jury’s answer to the punitive damages issue was a margin note and not a damages answer, (3) the evidence was legally and factually insufficient as to false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and both actual and punitive damages. Subject to remittitur suggested to appellee, we reverse and render in part and affirm in part.

[729]*729BACKGROUND

On August 2, 1995, appellee Dorothy Ramirez and two of her daughters entered appellant Rice Food Markets, Inc. d/b/a Pricebuster Foods, in Houston, to shop for groceries. When appellee and her daughters first entered the store, appellee opened a cold drink case, picked out a cold drink, opened it and drank it as she and her daughters shopped throughout the store. Before she exited the store, appel-lee was asked by a woman to follow her to the rear of the store. It turned out that the woman was employed by appellant as a store detective. Appellee and the store detective went to a security room in the back of the store. Appellee testified that she was then interrogated, handcuffed to a chair and left by herself. Following a period of time estimated to have been from ten to thirty minutes, she was taken to the front of the store where officers from the Houston Police Department were waiting. The officers took custody of appellee, she was photographed and then taken to jail. She was booked into jail, where she stayed until the early morning hours of August 3rd when her husband posted bond for her. Appellee was charged with theft of property of the value of less than twenty dollars. When the case was eventually called for trial in January, 1996, it was dismissed.

Appellee filed suit claiming false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Trial took place on January 6, 2000. The jury charge contained six questions with instructions. In answer to questions 1 through 4 the jury found that (1) appellee was falsely imprisoned, (2) appellant commenced a criminal prosecution against ap-pellee, (3) appellant acted without probable cause and (4) appellant acted with malice in connection with the criminal prosecution of appellee. Jury Question 5 submitted a broad form actual damages inquiry; Jury Question 6 asked whether punitive damages should be awarded because of appel-lee’s false imprisonment by appellant. We will address the issues in the order presented by appellant.

THE JURY’S RESPONSE TO THE ACTUAL DAMAGES QUESTION

Appellee’s actual damages claim was submitted in a broad form question with three elements of damages to be considered.1 The jury was asked:

QUESTION NO. 5
What sum of money, if paid now in cash, would fairly and reasonably compensate Plaintiff for her damages caused by Rice Food Markets, Inc., d/b/a Price-buster Foods?
Consider the elements of damages listed below. Consider each element separately and do not include damages for one element in any other element. Do not include interest on any amount of damages you find.
a. Injury to feelings, reputation, character and health.
b. Mental suffering
c. Expenses incurred in order to secure release from arrest and in defense of the criminal prosecution.
Answer:_

[730]*730The jury’s response was to write “A. $30,000 B. $30,000 C. $6,700” following the colon after the word “Answer” so that the response looked thus:

Answer: A. $30,000 B. $30,000 C. $6,700

At the bottom of the page, in a blank area, the jury wrote the following note:

C. Estimated costs we do not really know. Attorney fees in 1st case, travel, bail, mise, costs incurred est. @ $6,700.

Following consideration of post-trial motions, the trial court entered judgment. In its judgment the trial court recited that the jury found $66,700 in actual damages and $1,000 in punitive damages. Judgment was entered for those amounts together with prejudgment interest on the actual damages.

Appellant’s first issue addresses the jury’s responses to question 5 and urges that the jury failed to render a verdict, or that the verdict was too ambiguous to support a judgment for appellee. As components of its first issue appellant urges that (1) it sufficiently preserved error for appellate review, and in any event, the burden was on appellee to object to the improper form of the jury’s answers; (2) when a broad form damages issue is submitted and the jury answers by providing separate responses to the individual elements to be considered, the jury responses have no legal effect and are tantamount to no legal award; and (3) the separate responses to separate elements, and the jury’s notation that it did not have evidence on which to calculate its answer to element “C” rendered the verdict too speculative and ambiguous to support a judgment. Appellant argues that because the jury’s responses are effectively not a cognizable verdict on actual damages, and because appellee did not object to the form of the verdict before discharge of the jury, the actual damages question should have been considered as unanswered and a take-nothing judgment should have been entered.

Appellee first responds that appellant did not preserve error because it did not timely object to the form of the jury’s response to Question 5. Appellee notes that (1) the record contains no objection from appellant before the jury was discharged and (2) even if appellant timely objected to the form of the jury’s response to question 5, its objection was waived because no record of the objection is presented on appeal. She further responds that (3) Tex.R. Civ. P. 2912 specifies that no special form of verdict is required, (4) the jury substantially complied with requirements of the law by placing its responses in the answer blank provided, (5) the mathematical addition of the responses is a ministerial act properly conducted by the trial court and (6) the jury’s marginal note about a lack of evidence for its answer to “C” must be disregarded.

We agree with appellee that appellant has not preserved error for review as to the form of the jury’s answer. Tex.R.App. P. 33.1(a)(1)(A)3 requires error to be preserved for appellate review by a timely request or objection specifying the objecting party’s complaint. TRCP 295 provides that if the purported verdict is defective, the trial court may direct it to be reformed. If the verdict is incomplete, not responsive to the jury charge questions or if the answers to the questions are in conflict, then the court shall give further proper written instructions and retire the jury for further deliberations. Id.

[731]*731The reporter’s record does not contain an objection by either party to receipt of the verdict by the trial court. Appellant asserts that the clerk’s record reflects its objection to receipt of the verdict based on the jury’s response to question 5.

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59 S.W.3d 726, 2001 WL 883075, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rice-food-markets-inc-v-ramirez-texapp-2001.