law-error-preservation-for-appeal appellate-record | appellate deadline | must challenge all
basis for summary judgment on appeal | appeals of evidentiary rulings - harmless error rule
PRESERVATION OF ERROR FOR APPELLATE REVIEW
To preserve most issues for appellate review, a party must bring
the issue to the trial court's attention by timely request, objection,
or motion. See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1. “If the matter is not presented to
the trial court, the trial court has no opportunity to rule on the issue
or to correct its ruling if it is made in error.” In re Marriage of
Lendman, 170 S.W.3d 894, 898 (Tex. App.-Texarkana 2005, no pet.) (citing
Lewis v. Tex. Employers Ins. Ass'n, 246 S.W.2d 599, 600 (Tex. 1952));
see also Powell v. Powell, 604 S.W.2d 491, 493 (Tex. Civ. App.-Dallas
1980, no writ) (“[t]he orderly administration of justice requires that
issues and objections be raised in the trial court so that justice may
be done there rather than to permit a litigant to wait until after the
trial court has acted adversely and then complain for the first time on
appeal”); In re D.W., 249 S.W.3d 625, 643-44 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth),
pet. denied, 260 S.W.3d 462 (Tex. 2008) (per curiam) (noting rules of
civil and appellate procedure “assure that parties must bring every
complaint of error to the attention of the trial court in a timely
manner, and they provide the trial court ample opportunity at every step
of the trial proceedings to cure its own errors and grant new trials
As a preliminary matter, in order to preserve error for appeal, a party must show that a
complaint was made to the trial court by a timely and specific request, objection, or motion with
respect to the alleged error. Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a)(1). The record in this case does not
establish that John objected to either the August 15, 2007 trial setting or the March 14, 2008
hearing. While John contends he informed the trial court of the October 2005 hearing at the
August 15, 2007 trial setting, he did not make a written or oral objection to the new setting.
Accordingly, John failed to preserve this complaint for our review. See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a)
(1). John’s third issue is overruled.
09-0381
JOHN A. LYONS v. LAURI D. LYONS; from Bexar County;
4th district (04-08-00259-CV, ___ SW3d ___, 01-14-09, pet. denied Sep. 2009)
(divorce appeal, business records affidavit defective, findings of fact & conclusions of law,
error preservation for appellate review) as redrafted