Opinion

Mayer v. State

  • 309 S.W.3d 552
  • 2010 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 100
  • 2010 WL 1050331
Court
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
Filed
Mar 24, 2010
Status
Published
Author
Keasler
On the bench
Johnson, Price, Hervey, Holcomb, Cochran, Keasler, Keller, Meyers, Womack
Cited by
1,033 cases
Authority
More cited than 9.2%

holding “. . . that no trial objection is required to preserve an appellate claim of insufficient evidence, thus the court of appeals did not err in addressing appellant's complaint about the order to reimburse court-appointed attorney fees”

How later courts described this case

  • holding “. . . that no trial objection is required to preserve an appellate claim of insufficient evidence, thus the court of appeals did not err in addressing appellant's complaint about the order to reimburse court-appointed attorney fees”
  • holding that improperly assessing attorney’s fees against a defendant without legally sufficient evidence may be challenged for the first time on appeal
  • holding that factual predicate for the assessment of court costs included in a bill of costs must be supported by sufficient evidence in the record
  • holding that factual predicate for assessment of court costs included in bill of costs must be supported by sufficient evidence

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

KEASLER, J.,

filed a dissenting opinion in which KELLER, P.J., MEYERS, and WOMACK, JJ., joined.

The court of appeals in this case did not address whether a challenge to the reimbursement order could be raised for the first time on appeal when Kenneth Lee Mayer failed to object to the order in the trial court. Preservation of error is a systemic requirement, and the courts of appeals are obligated to consider whether each point of error raised on appeal is subject to preservation requirements, and if so, whether the point of error was properly preserved. 1 I disagree with the majority’s contention that Mayer raised a legal sufficiency claim. As evidenced by the briefs before us, the exact nature of the issue raised by Mayer is hotly contested. 2 It is also debatable whether a sufficiency review is appropriate in this case. 3 The preservation issue here is unsettled, so we should give the court of appeals the opportunity to address this issue in the first instance. 4 I would vacate the court of appeals’s judgment and summarily remand the case to the court of appeals so that it could determine whether Mayer was required to preserve his complaint about the reimbursement order.

. See Wilson v. State, - S.W.3d -, - - (Tex.Crim.App.2010) (Keasler, J., dissenting); Jones v. State, 942 S.W.2d 1 , 2 n. 1 (Tex.Crim.App.1997) ("Preservation of error is a systemic requirement that a first-level appellate court should ordinarily review on its own motion.").

. See Idowu v. State, 73 S.W.3d 918, 921 (Tex.Crim.App.2002) ("If a defendant wishes to complain about the appropriateness of (as opposed to the factual basis for) a trial court’s restitution order, he must do so in the trial court, and must do so explicitly.”).

. See e.g., Speth v. State, 6 S.W.3d 530 , 531 n. 1 (Tex.Crim.App.1999) (stating that imposition of probation conditions is not appropriate for a sufficiency review).

. Bledsoe v. State, 178 S.W.3d 824, 826 (Tex.Crim.App.2005) (Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 47.1 requires courts of appeals to address every issue raised and necessary to the final disposition of the case in its opinions).

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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