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Moritz v. Preiss6/12/2003
ed in denying its motion to vacate. Expressing concern that it did not have jurisdiction absent a final judgment from the trial court, the court of appeals abated Preiss's appeal and remanded to the trial court to enter a final judgment disposing of all parties. 60 S.W.3d at 287; see also Tex. R. App. P. 27.2 (allowing an appealed order that is not final to be modified so as to be made final). In response, the trial court rendered a new judgment that included CTKA as a party. Preiss then filed a motion for the trial court to reconsider the amended motion for new trial, and the trial court denied the motion. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b(b).
Back before the court of appeals, Moritz and the other healthcare providers (Moritz) argued that the trial court's original judgment rendered August 29, 2000, was final, and therefore, the court of appeals could not consider whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying Preiss's untimely amended motion for new trial. The court of appeals concluded in a footnote that the trial court's signing the amended final judgment and overruling Preiss's subsequent motion for new trial rendered this argument moot. 60 S.W.3d at 287 n.1. Then, based on the juror disqualification issue raised in Preiss's amended new trial motion, the court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial. Id. at 295.
Moritz petitions this Court for review and asks us to reverse the court of appeals' judgment. Moritz contends the trial court's original judgment was final, and therefore, the court of appeals erred in reviewing the trial court's denial of Preiss's untimely amended motion for new trial. Alternatively, Moritz argues that, because the juror in question was not disqualified, the court of appeals erred in holding the trial court abused its discretion in denying the amended motion for new trial.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Final Judgment
This Court has long recognized a presumption of finality for judgments that follow a trial on the merits:
When a judgment, not intrinsically interlocutory in character, is rendered and entered in a case regularly set for a conventional trial on the merits, no order for a separate trial of issues having been entered pursuant to [our procedural rules,] it will be presumed for appeal purposes that the Court intended to, and did, dispose of all parties legally before it and of all issues made by the pleadings between such parties.
N. E. Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Aldridge, 400 S.W.2d 893, 897 (Tex. 1966); see also John v. Marshall Health Serv., Inc., 58 S.W.3d 738, 740 (Tex. 2001); Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 198 (Tex. 2001). If a judgment actually disposes of every issue in a case, then it is not interlocutory simply because it does not include one of the parties. See Lehmann, 39 S.W.3d at 200; see also Trammel v. Rosen, 157 S.W. 1161, 1162 (Tex. 1913) (if a judgment implicitly, but necessarily, disposes of all claims it is presumed final).
We recently affirmed the finality presumption for judgments rendered after a full trial on the merits. John, 58 S.W.3d at 740. In John, after the jury failed to reach a verdict, the trial court granted certain defendants' motion for directed verdict and rendered a judgment stating that John take nothing from those defendants. The judgment did not name three other defendants, who did not participate in the trial because John had negotiated a preliminary settlement with them. Id. at 739. We held that, although the judgment did not expressly dispose of all parties, the finality presumption applied to all parties, including the defendants the judgment did not name. Id. at 740. In concluding the finality presumption was "entirely appropri
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