McDaniel v. Yarbrough

• Decision Date: 15 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-0098,94-0098
• Citation: 898 S.W.2d 251
• Parties: 38 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 337 B.J. McDANIEL, Jr. and Pamela Chamrod McDaniel, Petitioners, v. Tom YARBROUGH, Respondent.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 251

898 S.W.2d 251

38 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 337

B.J. McDANIEL, Jr. and Pamela Chamrod McDaniel, Petitioners, v. Tom YARBROUGH, Respondent.

No. 94-0098.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued Sept. 21, 1994.

Decided March 2, 1995.

Rehearing Overruled June 15, 1995.

Edmund L. Cogburn, George A. Rustay, P. Randall Crump, Houston, for petitioners.

Kathleen Hopkins Alsina, Vance J. Christopher, Houston, for respondent.

GAMMAGE, Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court, in which HIGHTOWER, CORNYN, SPECTOR and OWEN, Justices, join.

The primary question this case presents is whether the trial court abused its discretion by dismissing a juror as "disabled from sitting" when she asserted she was unable to return to the courthouse because of inclement weather. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court judgment, holding there was no abuse of discretion in determining that the juror was disabled from sitting on the jury. 866 S.W.2d 665. We conclude that a weather-induced delay is not a "disability" and hold that the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the juror. Consequently, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand the cause to the trial court for a new trial.

B.J. and Pamela McDaniel brought suit against Tom Yarbrough for damages arising out of an automobile collision. The case was tried before a jury from March 2 through March 5, 1992. Twelve jurors were selected, impaneled, and sworn on March 2. The jury heard opening statements and evidence on March 3. On the afternoon of March 3, the trial judge determined that juror Robert David Hogan, a minister, would be permitted to officiate a funeral service the following morning, and at the conclusion of the day's proceedings announced that trial would recess until the following afternoon to allow Hogan to conduct the funeral. The judge instructed the jury panel to reconvene at 1:00 p.m. on March 4.

Upon reassembling the court the next day, the judge announced that juror Shirley Seals had notified the court that because of heavy flooding she would be unable to return that afternoon. The trial court, sua sponte, dismissed Seals from further participation and ordered that the trial proceed with eleven jurors. The judge overruled the McDaniels' objection to Seal's dismissal. The trial continued with eleven jurors. On March 5, the jury returned a 10-1 verdict finding Yarbrough 70% negligent, but awarding zero damages to the McDaniels. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in dismissing Seals from sitting on the jury as disabled when she was temporarily unable to return to the courthouse because of heavy rain. The court of appeals concluded that a "mental or physical disability is not the only type of disability that will justify a dismissal of a juror," and held that a temporary delay because of the weather is a "disability."

I.

Yarbrough first asserts the McDaniels failed to preserve their complaint of the trial court's dismissal of Seals. To preserve error, an objection must state the specific grounds for the desired ruling if those grounds are not apparent from the context of the objection. TEX.R.APP.P. 52(a). An objection is sufficient to preserve error for appeal if it allows the trial judge to make an informed ruling and the other party to remedy the defect, if he can. McKinney v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co., 772 S.W.2d 72, 74 (Tex.1989). In this case, the McDaniels' objection to improper dismissal of Seals was raised with the trial court and the grounds for the McDaniels' objection were apparent from the context of the record. Upon dismissing Seals, the trial judge stated:

Let the record reflect that Shirley Seals, Juror No. 7 on the panel, has reported to the Court that because of the weather she is unable to get back, so we could resume the trial in this case. And pursuant to the provisions of Rule 292, the Court on its own motion has decided to go ahead and proceed with 11 jurors.

The trial court, on its own motion, dismissed Seals "pursuant to the provisions of Rule 292." The McDaniels' attorney immediately objected to the trial court's decision to dismiss Seals. The McDaniels' objection gave sufficient notice to the trial court that Seals was not "disabled from sitting" within the context of Rule 292. The objection suggested the proper remedy was not disqualification, but a further recess to allow the juror to return.

II.

The Texas Constitution and Texas Rules of Civil Procedure require that a district court jury consist of twelve members unless not more than three jurors die or "be disabled from sitting." See TEX. CONST. art. V, § 13; TEX.R.CIV.P. 292.

In Houston & Texas Central Ry. Co. v. Waller, 56 Tex. 331 (1882), this Court set out guiding principles for defining "disabled from sitting" under the Texas Constitution. ¹ While trial courts have broad discretion in determining whether a juror is "disabled from sitting" when there is evidence of constitutional disqualification, a trial court may not ignore the constraints established in Waller. The Waller opinion equates "disabled from sitting" with an actual physical or mental incapacity:

[W]ithout deeming it proper to attempt to define fully the meaning of the expression used in the constitution, we are satisfied that the causes which disable the juror from sitting, and justify the extreme course of allowing, over a party's objection, a verdict to be rendered by the remainder of the jury, must be of a nature more directly showing his physical or mental incapacity than mere mental distress occasioned by the sickness of others, and the feeling that duty to the sick demanded his presence elsewhere. Extreme cases of the kind, however strongly they may appear to the court to release the juror, do not belong to the class provided for by the constitution or statute. Id. at 337-38.

No evidence of record suggests that Seals became "disabled from sitting" within the constitutional meaning as explained in Waller. She was not mentally incompetent or sick, nor did she have some other physical or mental incapacity. On the contrary, she was temporarily detained by flooding caused by heavy rain, which is at most a transient physical barrier. Her dismissal from the jury as "disabled" was improper.

III.

The test for abuse of discretion is whether the trial court acted without reference to any guiding rules and principles or whether the act was arbitrary and unreasonable. Downer v. Aquamarine Operators, Inc., 701 S.W.2d 238, 241-42 (Tex.1985). In this case, the trial judge delayed the trial by one-half day to accommodate one juror, but refused to give similar accommodation to another juror who was temporarily delayed by flooding. By recessing in the morning to accommodate Hogan, the trial judge's decision may have affected Seals' inability to appear at the courthouse in the afternoon. As a matter of law, the circumstances did not give rise to a question of disability under the constitution or Rule 292. A clear failure by a trial court to analyze or apply the law correctly is an abuse of discretion. Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 840 (Tex.1992).

Denial of the constitutional right to trial by jury constitutes reversible error. See Heflin v. Wilson, 297 S.W.2d 864, 866 (Tex.Civ.App.--Beaumont 1956, writ ref'd). Depriving the McDaniels of a full jury of twelve members, absent an exception authorized by the constitution or applicable rules, is a denial of the right to jury trial guaranteed by the Texas Constitution. The trial court abused its discretion in dismissing Seals as "disabled from sitting" because it was clear error to apply that provision in the absence of some physical or mental disability.

For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the judgments of the court of appeals and the trial court and remand this cause to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

GONZALEZ, Justice, joined by PHILLIPS, Chief Justice, HECHT and ENOCH, Justices, dissenting.

The Court today misconstrues precedent in reversing and remanding for new trial a case in which an eleven-member jury found that the plaintiffs had no damages. The Court reaches this conclusion by holding that the trial court erred in excusing a juror who was physically unable to return to the courthouse. Because I think that the trial court did not err, much less deprive the McDaniels of a constitutional right, I would affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

In this case, on March 4, 1992, the twelfth juror, Shirley Seals, notified the trial court after a morning's recess that she was unable to reach the courthouse to report for jury duty because of heavy flooding in Houston, Texas. On this particular day, the flooding of White Oak Bayou near downtown Houston, where the courthouse is located, was widely reported in the media. Interstate 10 was closed to traffic from downtown to several miles west, due to flooding which trapped hundreds of vehicles in ten feet of water. ¹ Given these travel conditions, the trial court certainly would have understood Juror Seals' assertion that she could not make it to the courthouse to be an honest statement of inability. Moreover, no one could have known how long the flooding which prevented her attendance would continue. By contrast, the facts known to the trial court were quite different when it recessed the trial the morning of March 4th for Juror Hogan to officiate a funeral. As the court of appeals noted, the trial court had advance warning of the exact amount of time--one morning--necessary to recess in order to accommodate Juror Hogan's conflict. 866 S.W.2d 665, 670. In temporarily recessing one time, the trial court did not establish a rule in favor of continuances. Because the information about the two jurors' inability to attend the proceedings differed significantly, the trial court's decision to grant the morning recess for Juror Hogan did not control its later decision to excuse Juror Seals. When all the...