Mandujano v. Oliva
| Citation | 755 S.W.2d 512 |
| Decision Date | 30 June 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-87-00479-CV,04-87-00479-CV |
| Parties | Michael MANDUJANO, Appellant, v. Florencio OLIVA, Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Texas |
Larry A. Matthys, Thornton, Summers, Beichlin, Dunham and Brown, San Antonio, for appellant.
Robert A. Valdez, John D. Wennermark, San Antonio, for appellee.
Before CANTU and DIAL, JJ., and KLINGEMAN, Assigned Justice.
*
This is an appeal from a dismissal for want of prosecution. The lawsuit involves an automobile accident which occurred in San Antonio on February 26, 1983. The suit was filed on January 30, 1985, and discovery was commenced following the appearance of defendant. Mandujano filed a jury demand on June 24, 1986 and paid the jury fee on that date. At the time of filing the jury demand, Mandujano filed a motion to set the case on the jury trial docket in January, 1987. 1 On March 27, 1987, the District Clerk of Bexar County gave notice to all parties to the litigation that the case was set for hearing on May 8, 1987, on the dismissal for want of prosecution docket. 2 The attorney for Mandujano was out of the country on the date of the dismissal hearing, and an associate from his office was sent to the hearing. Instead of appearing in the 288th District Court where the hearing was conducted, the associate went to the Presiding District Court for the hearing. Because of the failure of Mandujano or his attorneys to appear at the hearing in the 288th District Court, the case was dismissed for want of prosecution by an order signed May 8, 1987.
On May 14, 1987, Mandujano filed a Motion to Reinstate Dismissed Case, which was admittedly defective in that it was not verified, as required by TEX.R.CIV.P. 165a. A hearing on this motion was held on May 26, 1987, and reinstatement was denied. Thereafter, on June 3, 1987, Mandujano filed his Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reinstate Dismissed Case, which contained an affidavit from the associate who had failed to attend the hearing in the 288th District Court on May 8, 1987. On June 16, 1987, an order denying the original motion was signed. A hearing was set on the amended motion for June 17, 1987, on which date it too was overruled. On June 19, 1987, Mandujano filed his Motion for Rehearing, which contained an affidavit from Judge John Cornyn, explaining that the associate attorney had appeared before him in Presiding District Court on May 8, 1987, to argue against dismissal of the lawsuit. This motion was overruled at a hearing on June 23, 1987. On June 25, 1987, Mandujano filed his Verified Motion to Reconsider and Motion to Reinstate, and hearing was held on this motion on July 8, 1987, at which time it too was overruled. 3
This appeal is before this Court on three points of error. First, Mandujano urges that the trial court erred in refusing to reinstate the dismissed case on June 17, 1987, at the hearing on the Plaintiff's Amended Motion to Reinstate Dismissed Case, because Mandujano had presented a timely-filed and verified motion to reinstate and demonstrated that his failure to appear at the dismissal docket hearing on May 8, 1987, was the result of a mistake and was not intentional or due to conscious indifference. Second, he urges error in the trial court's refusal to reinstate the dismissed case at the hearing on Plaintiff's Motion for Rehearing, where the trial court had jurisdiction to rule on the matter and it was shown that Mandujano's failure to appear on May 8, 1987, was due to a mistake and was not intentional or the result of conscious indifference. Third, Mandujano alleges error in the trial court's refusal to reinstate the dismissed case at the hearing on Plaintiff's Verified Motion to Reconsider and Motion to Reinstate, since the motion was heard within the court's plenary jurisdiction to reinstate the dismissed case, where it was shown that the case had been prosecuted with due diligence and where the failure to appear at the dismissal hearing was due to mistake and was not intentional or the result of conscious indifference. We find all three points of error to be meritorious, and all are sustained.
Rule 165a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, provides in pertinent part, that:
A motion to reinstate shall set forth the grounds therefor and be verified by the movant or his attorney. It shall be filed with the clerk within 30 days after the order of dismissal is signed or within the period provided by Rule 306a....
The court shall reinstate the case upon finding after a hearing that the failure of a party or his attorney was not intentional or the result of conscious indifference but was due to an accident or mistake or that the failure has been otherwise reasonably explained.
In the event for any reason a motion for reinstatement is not decided by signed written order within seventy-five days after the judgment is signed, or, within such other time as may be allowed by Rule 306a, the motion shall be deemed overruled by operation of law. If a motion to reinstate is timely filed by any party, the trial court, regardless of whether an appeal has been perfected, has plenary power to reinstate the case until 30 days after all such timely filed motions are overruled, either by a written and signed order or by operation of law, whichever occurs first.
TEX.R.CIV.P. 165a. It is undisputed under the law that the Amended Motion to Reinstate Dismissed Case was verified in accordance with Rule 165a and was filed within thirty (30) days after the order of dismissal was signed. We agree with Mandujano that the motion demonstrated that his counsel's failure to appear was due to mistake and was not intentional or the result of conscious indifference. We find no merit in appellee's contention that Mandujano was limited to a single motion to reinstate the case, particularly since the plain language of Rule 165a states that the trial court has "plenary...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Smith v. Babcock & Wilcox Const. Co., Inc.
...Haney, 810 S.W.2d 469, 470 (Tex.App.--Eastland 1991, no writ) (attorney mistaken as to date of trial); Mandujano v. Oliva, 755 S.W.2d 512, 514 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1988, writ denied) (attorney appeared in wrong courtroom). Accordingly, we overrule appellants' first point of error. In thei......
-
Villarreal v. San Antonio Truck & Equipment, Inc.
...[was] made, this cause [would] be dismissed for want of prosecution," and nothing more. As in Mandujano [v. Oliva, 755 S.W.2d 512 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1988, writ ref'd) ], a reasonable reading of the notice merely gave the appellants notice that the dismissal setting was pursuant to the p......
-
Goff v. Branch
...but was due to an accident or mistake or that the failure has been otherwise reasonably explained." Mandujano v. Oliva, 755 S.W.2d 512, 514 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1988, writ ref'd), citing Price v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 700 S.W.2d 730, 733 (Tex.App.--Dallas 1985, no writ). "[T]he ref......
-
In re Garcia
...motion was also required to be filed within thirty days of the date the dismissal order was signed. See Mandujano v. Oliva, 755 S.W.2d 512, 514 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1988, writ denied). We cannot treat the plaintiff's "Motion for a New Trial and to Reinstate" as a motion for new trial, whic......