James D. Anderton, Individually as the Trustee of the Jimmie W. Anderton and Frances E. Anderton Revocable Living Trust Agreement v. Jennifer Green ( 2018 )

CONCUR; and Opinion Filed July 23, 2018.
In The
Court of Appeals
Fifth District of Texas at Dallas
No. 05-17-00024-CV
JAMES D. ANDERTON, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS THE TRUSTEE
OF THE JIMMIE W. ANDERTON AND FRANCES E. ANDERTON
REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST AGREEMENT, Appellants
V.
JENNIFER GREEN, Appellee
On Appeal from the 354th District Court
Hunt County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 79011
CONCURRING OPINION
Before Chief Justice Wright, Justice Lang-Miers, and Justice Whitehill
Concurring Opinion by Justice Whitehill
I agree with and join in the court’s opinion as correctly decided based on the issues raised
and the record before us. I write separately to address only the preservation issue discussed in
footnote four of that opinion.
In my view, appellants’ complaint about whether Jennifer failed to segregate her
recoverable attorneys’ fees is substantively a complaint about the sufficiency of the evidence to
support the amount awarded. See Tony Gullo Motors I, L.P. v. Chapa, 22 S.W.3d 299, 314 (Tex.
2006) (“Unsegregated attorney’s fees for the entire case are some evidence of what the segregated
amount should be.”) (footnote omitted). As such, that issue could have been raised for the first
time on appeal from this nonjury case. TEX. R. APP. P. 33.1(d).
Therefore, future appellate courts should not need to address the error preservation issues
footnote four discusses when resolving whether an attorneys’ fees claimant properly segregated
recoverable attorneys’ fees from non-recoverable attorneys’ fees when a trial court tries that issue.
/Bill Whitehill/
BILL WHITEHILL
JUSTICE
170024CF.P05
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