Category Archives: General Court Information

Writing Wednesday: Signed ≠ Rendered ≠ Entered

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With respect to court orders and judgments, the words “signed,” “rendered,” and “entered” are often used interchangeably. But those words have specific, technical meanings, and it is wise to remember those meanings when differences matter.  Accord, Burrell v. Cornelius, 570 S.W.2d 382, 384 (Tex. 1978) (“Judges render judgment; clerks enter them on the minutes.  …  The entry of a judgment is the clerk’s record in the minutes of the court.  ‘Entered’ is synonymous with neither ‘Signed’ nor ‘Rendered.’”).

Two rules set the background as to when critical countdowns commence:

  • Tex. R. Civ. P. 306a: “The date of judgment or order is signed as shown of record shall determine the beginning of the periods prescribed by these rules for the court’s plenary power to grant a new trial or to vacate, modify, correct or reform a judgment or order and for filing in the trial court the various documents that these rules authorize a party to file …”
  • Similarly, Tex. R. App. P. 26.1 begins: “The notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the judgment is signed, except as follows …”

By contrast, “[j]udgment is rendered when the trial court officially announces its decision in open court or by written memorandum filed with the clerk.”  E.g., S&A Restaurant Corp. v. Leal, 892 S.W.2d 855, 857 (Tex. 1995) (per curiam).  And the above-quoted paragraph from Rule 306a concludes: “… but this rule shall not determine what constitutes rendition of a judgment or order for any other purpose.”

By contrast, entry of judgment refers to the recording of a rendered judgment in the court’s official records. See, e.g., Lone Star Cement Corp v. Fair, 467 S.W.2d 402, 405 (Tex. 1971) (“The law is settled in this state that clerical errors in the entry of a judgment, previously rendered, may be corrected after the end of the court’s term by a nunc pro tunc judgment; however, judicial errors in the previously rendered judgment may not be so corrected.” (emphasis added)).

I gratefully acknowledge the excellent insights of Ben Taylor in preparing this post!

Dallas is in North TEXAS

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Dallas-Fort Worth is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States, and it is only a matter of time until it passes Chicago to become #3. Dallas is routinely ranked among the nation’s best cities. Yet, as noted in a recent Texas Lawbook op-ed, it is significantly underrepresented on the Texas Supreme Court. Hopefully, geographic diversity will play a role in future appointments to that Court.

Not a fact issue after all

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In JLB Builders LLC v. Hernandez, the Texas Supreme Court reversed an en banc Fifth Court opinion about a construction-site accident. The issue was the general contractor’s right of control over the workplace, and the supreme court reached these conclusions about key aspects of that issue (all emphasis added):

  • Direction. “Hernandez references his additional testimony that he had previously seen JLB supervisors talking to [the subcontractor’s] foremen and that the supervisors ‘appear[ed] to be giving instructions as to how our jobs were to be done.’ Without more, evidence of what JLB generally ‘appeared’ to be doing is no evidence that it was exercising actual control over the details of the injury-causing work.”
  • Safety requirements. “A general contractor that promulgates mandatory safety requirementsand procedures owes only a narrow duty to ensure that those requirements and procedures generally do not ‘unreasonably increase, rather than decrease, the probability and severity of injury.'”
  • Direction. “[T]here is no indication that JLB was aware that the wind posed a particular danger that day, and the testimony that JLB employees ‘could watch’ the supports being secured is not evidence that they did so or that they were aware the supports were improperly secured.”

(In my three-part system for categorizing Texas intermediate-court en banc opinions, JLB Builders would be a “successful failure,” in that it drew supreme court attention but for the purpose of reversal.)

The I-35 Court of Appeals

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The state Senate has undertaken the redistricting the current 14 intermediate-court districts in Texas; Law360 has a thorough story after a recent Jurisprudence Committee hearing. As for Dallas, the Senate’s plan links Austin and Dallas (right, below), cities that have been jurisprudentially distinct since at least 1893 (left, below). Please make your opinions known on the “I-35 Court of Appeals” as the Legislature continues to consider this proposal.

Writing Wednesday – Garamond Font.

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This is a crosspost from 600Camp, which follows commercial litigation in the Fifth Circuit.

The DC Circuit’s recent style manual amendment that criticized the use of “Garamond” font has drawn national attention. As this matter has now become a pressing issue facing the federal courts, 600Camp weighs in with these thoughts, all of which are written in 14-point size:

Accordingly, if you really like Garamond and are writing a brief with a word limit rather than a page limit, you should consider bumping the size up to 15-point. And of course, in a jurisdiction with page limits rather than word limits, Garamond offers a way to add more substance to your submission–but be careful that this extra substance does not come at the price of less visibility.