Sosa v. Cardenas

20 S.W.3d 8, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 539, 2000 WL 84643
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 26, 2000
Docket04-97-00947-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 20 S.W.3d 8 (Sosa v. Cardenas) 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
Sosa v. Cardenas, 20 S.W.3d 8, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 539, 2000 WL 84643 (Tex. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by:

PAUL W. GREEN, Justice.

This suit arose out of an auto accident. The case was tried before a jury, and a no negligence verdict was returned. Appellant, Lydia Sosa, appeals the trial court’s take nothing judgment rendered in favor of Appellee, George Cardenas. In three issues on appeal Sosa complains (1) venire members who were biased were not disqualified for cause, (2) the evidence was factually insufficient to support the verdict, and (3) the trial court should have granted Sosa’s motion for new trial because Cardenas failed to produce photographs that were in his possession and were the subject of a proper request for production. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Voir Dire — Failure to Disqualify for Cause & Improper Restriction of Plaintiff s Questions

A. Failure to Disqualify

Sosa argues that the trial court erred by not disqualifying certain jurors for cause. In order to preserve this issue for appeal, a party must (1) make its objection before exercising its peremptory challenges; (2) apprise the trial court that, because it refused to strike certain prospective jurors for cause, the party was forced to use some of its peremptory challenges on them; and (3) show the court that other jurors who were “obnoxious” or “objectionable” would have been peremptorily challenged had the party not been forced to use its challenges on other jurors who should have been struck for cause. See Sullemon v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, 734 S.W.2d 10, 13 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1987, no writ). The objecting party does not have to request additional peremptory challenges. Id.

*11 Sosa had only six peremptory challenges to use. She listed eight prospective jurors by number that should have been struck for cause. Although she did not state which objectionable jurors she would be forced to leave on the jury panel after she used her peremptory strikes on other jurors, she did list a greater number of objectionable jurors than she had peremptory strikes to eliminate. Therefore, she has identified the objectionable or obnoxious jurors left on whom she would have used her peremptory strikes, and error has been preserved. Id. at 13-14.

Sosa complains that panel members number 4, 12, 16, 19, 21, 25, 27, 31, and 32 should have been disqualified because they answered affirmatively the question:

Now, one of the elements we’ve talked about is going to be mental anguish. Some people just don’t believe that people should be awarded damages for mental anguish. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, thh law says you are. But in all truthfulness and honesty, if you don’t believe in that, I’d ask you to raise your hand. Who here believes that you should not get mental anguish damages?

Tex.Gov’t.Code Ann. § 62.105(4) (Vernon 1994) provides that a person is disqualified to serve as a petit juror in a particular case if he has a bias or prejudice in favor of or against a party in a case. The Texas Supreme Court has defined “prejudice” as “prejudgment” and, as such, “embraces bias.” Sullemon, 734 S.W.2d at 14, quoting Compton v. Henrie, 364 S.W.2d 179, 182 (Tex.1963). Bias as a ground of disqualification requires an inclination toward one side of an issue rather than to the other to such an extent that the state of mind of the juror leads to the natural inference that he will not or did not act with impartiality. Id. Statutory disqualification based on bias or prejudice extends not only to the litigant personally, but to the subject matter of the litigation as well. Compton, 364 S.W.2d at 182.

Neither bias nor prejudice is presumed. Nor is either shown by general questions, which are usually insufficient to satisfy the diligence required in probing the mind of a venire member with respect to a legal disqualification for bias or prejudice. See Gant v. Dumas Glass and Mirror, Inc., 935 S.W.2d 202, 208 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1996, no writ). Rather, the key response that supports a successful challenge for cause is that the venire member cannot be fair and impartial because the venire member’s feelings are so strong in favor of or against a party or against the subject matter of the litigation that the venire member’s verdict will be based on those feelings and not on the evidence. Id., citing Julie A. Wright, Challenges for Cause due to Bias or Prejudice: The Blind Leading the Blind Down the Road of Disqualification, 46 Baylor L.Rev. 825, 838 (1994).

When a juror is not found biased or prejudiced as a matter of law, whether the juror is nevertheless sufficiently biased or prejudiced to merit disqualification is a factual determination to be made by the court. See Sullemon, 734 S.W.2d at 15. Such a finding will not be disturbed in the absence of an abuse of discretion. Id. Whenever the evidence does not conclusively establish the panelist’s disqualification as a matter of law, appellate courts must consider all the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling. Id.

1. Juror Number 4

When juror number four was questioned individually about his ability to award mental anguish damages, he answered that he would have to hear the evidence. Juror number four was not disqualified as a matter of law. Further, because his answer supports the trial court’s finding that he was not biased to the extent necessary to support disqualification, we affirm the trial court’s overruling of Sosa’s challenge of juror number 4 for cause.

*12 2. Juror Number 16

When juror number sixteen was examined individually, her answers showed she was not disqualified, either as a matter of law or fact. When Sosa’s counsel asked if she could render a “small award for a little bit of mental anguish and a big award for a lot of mental anguish,” she answered “it depends on the circumstance that would show.” (sic) When pressed further on this point, juror number sixteen continued to answer that “it would depend.” Finally, she stated simply “I’d have to see the evidence.”

3. Juror Number 17

Juror number seventeen did not indicate he would not be able to award mental anguish damages if such an award was supported by the evidence. Sosa also objects to juror number seventeen because of alleged bias against chiropractors. Although juror number seventeen stated he didn’t think chiropractors did much for anyone, when Sosa’s counsel asked him if he had “any problem with a doctor allowing one of his patients to see a chiropractor while they were seeing her [the patient],” he answered, “if they referred her to him, no.” Further, when juror number seventeen was examined individually, he agreed unequivocally that the plaintiffs case would “stand or fall based on the evidence presented.”

4.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 S.W.3d 8, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 539, 2000 WL 84643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sosa-v-cardenas-texapp-2000.